Less Hustle More Coffee

Why am I Not Using My Camera?

In the last two years I have been excited to vlog and what do you do when you are excited about a new adventure or hobby? You learn what to do, how to do it, and what tools you need. When I decided to vlog, I wanted my videos to look the best they could be and decided to invest in a good camera to beginner “vlog” with. I bought the recommended Canon EOS M50. I knew nothing really of cameras but have always loved photography – only in the way of knowing a pretty scene and then capturing it – by chance. So I bought the camera and then realized I also needed a wide angle lens. And I bought some accessories necessary for vlogging. Bought some tripods, upgraded camera bag (more accessories means bigger bag), bought the SIM card, bought the microphone, bought a gorilla pod, bought an extra lamp to move around for lighting. And jumped into the vlog world. And begin to use my camera after using a brief canon lesson on settings.

Wah-Wuah. I learn how to download the footage and realize that my footage basically stinks. So I go back and do more photography lessons and get advice from other “you tubers” on how to use this camera for vlogging and put on my “to do list” continued lessons for continued learning. Time passes. I’m not a young chicken anymore. I forget what I learned. But I am not a person that wants to give up anymore. Sure when I was younger, I tried things out, if I didn’t like it, wasn’t good at it, or it didn’t meet my passions, I would try something else. Doing the vlogging and having great video footage has been my goal along with continued improvement – that is the real passion as I love capturing the videos, editing them, and sharing them. I don’t really want to take the time to learn how to do the videos – well I do – but it’s way down the list of things I want to do so I have to push for it by putting it on bucket lists, daily to do lists, etc. My issue has been “work on the next video OR do some training”. The video wins every time. After all, a lot of my footage has been on iPhone which with camera improvements has been a game changer. My best footage is from the iPhone and I really don’t have to do a “thang”!

So I had to sit down and have a conversation with myself. Am I going to allow this wonderful piece of photography equipment go to waste? NO. I see other “vloggers” using their EOS M50 all the time, faithfully, with perfect videos. What am I doing differently? Well it’s time to find out.

Asking Myself Some Questions

Why don’t you like using your camera around the house, Sonya? It sits there waiting for you to give it some attention and use it.

1. It’s clunky and big.
2. The iPhone is near me already.
3. It makes noises when I move around.
4. It’s been hard to set it about to film with the tripods I have.
5. It’s not been faithful at giving me good footage.
6. It’s not convenient.
7. I don’t know how to use it and have become intimidated by it.
8. I don’t have time to learn how to use it with the schedule we have.

So I treated this like a problem at work. What is the root cause of these issues. I kept asking “Why, Why, Why” until I drilled it down.

Addressing Camera Issues So That I Will Use it More

So here are the things I’m doing make this easier for me and to want to use my camera for footage.

1. I ordered a Manfrotto Pixi Mini Tripod to make it more secure sitting it on an item and also makes it more secure holding it in my hand. It will help greatly with stabilization and less awkward to use. It won’t be as hard to set up to use on a table. My gorilla pod is good for wrapping around things but is not good at trying to get it level because the legs have been wrapped around things are NOT level anymore. In just holding it in my hands I already feel a sense of power of controlling it instead of it controlling me. I feel like a “vlogger” now when I hold it. Why did I not see this before? This is a game changer.

2. I removed the darn camera strap. I didn’t realize so much how much the strap was getting in my way and it is what was making the noise as it clunked against the side of the camera and the microphone picked it up. I thought having the strap was necessary, and if I was touring the country and taking photos of things – yes, it would come in handy around my neck but that is not how I am using it. The strap is handy if I ever want to add it back. But this is a big game changer too. It’s no longer in my way nor is it making noise.

3. I stopped in my tracks and did some quick refresher videos via YouTube and specifically focused on settings for vlogging indoors. And I got some tips from other vloggers through their own YouTube videos.

4. I plan to use my camera every day for a month in fun forceful way of experimenting to learn what settings work best in my environment. I know where to focus now and which buttons to push to change it.

5. I’m committed to doing ongoing training even if it is once a month so that I can continue to improve.

I truly feel that making the camera comfortable in my hands and easy to use was the KEY to getting over this “hump” I’ve been on. I’ve been ignoring the problem and setting it in the back burner, to the point of almost deciding not to pick it up again, and wondering if I’d made a stupid mistake. I’m so glad I loved vlogging enough to realize that if others can do this, I can too and I am good enough to figure this thing out. It took the TV going out to have time to fix it. lol. I have prayed to God that he would help me in doing my videos and all that I’m trying to do. And I’ve promised I will honor him in all that I do with it.

Random Other Stuff

And now guess what. When I woke up this morning the TV was ON. Is that not weird? It’s been off for a week. But it was on when I went in the living room. I don’t know what the deal is. All I can figure is that God needed us to do some other things this week with our time. We have worked on projects that we have been wanting to work on. I’ve even been doing some reading this week and we’ve ate at the table every night.

The gorilla pod is great for affixing the camera to something else and shooting. I have tall tripods all over the place but most of the time they are too big to use. And that gorilla pod, as afore mentioned, was just too hard to adjust to get even once you have curled it about and it was also never secured. If it leaned to heavy in one way it’ll fall over. I became afraid to use it really. But the new mini Manfrotto tripod is very secure and feels great in my hands. I’d not wanted to spend more money but it was only $26 on Amazon and to make that much of a difference (to use my camera or not) I felt it was worth it.

I also ordered some navy sandal crocs as Dexter managed to damage my others. Only slightly but I’d been looking at these anyway and when his teeth scratched off the gold decal from the old ones, it gave me license to buy these, ha! I also bought George’s birthday present. So I told George “hey I spent some dough on Amazon but one was your birthday present” – that always sweetens the pot a bit, lol. I may have to try that next year, LOL LOL LOL!

Having some time back in the schedule, I’ve done quite the editing and it’s been a big editing game on this next upcoming video. I had a lot of video and that meant I had to cut down from almost two hours of footage to 33 minutes. That is about all I could cut to still tell all the story of December. I prefer 17 to 21 minutes but I can’t see how to shorten this any more. The footage has some awful video in it – some too dark – some too light. I have tried to work with it and make it better but sometimes the color effects just don’t help. It was that bad. lol. But I’ve tried to limit the bad footage and use only the parts necessary. And this is the video that made me finally decide to figure out why I didn’t want to use my camera anymore. So it’s been a good week in that respect. The video will be out Saturday July 30 at 7:00 a.m. And it will be a spectacular Christmas in July event for you to watch. I’m going to call it “Christmas Crunch”. That is what it was. It’s us getting ready for Christmas amidst all kinds of things going on. I filmed mostly on my days off during the holidays. And it ends with a walk through video of the house and table. Of course the video has lots of music throughout appropriately placed. I am almost finished – just need to add a few graphics.

Oh, I had to organize the plastic ware and storage containers in our cabinets yesterday. It drove me nuts.

So we are about to head to church and I need to get ready. I also want more coffee and should probably grab breakfast of some sort. Today after church I need to finish up the laundry, iron, reboot vitamins, and mop the floors and vacuum. I will also then work on finishing the videos and want to work in Canva some. I also want to clean my desk off in my office and work on my filing system. I have to start a new Dexter file before we lose all his info. So I ordered more folders. Lots to do.

Better go. What all ya’ll doing today? Are you tired of the heat yet? lol. It’s been so hot. Oh big news! Dexter slept with me from 11 to 4:30 and did great. I had to get up to go to the rest room and he came back to bed with me and did fine. It’s the settling down part that is hard for him. So he’ll get to where he will sleep up there all night I guess. But for now I know I can get up and he will come back to bed to finish out the night. He snuggled some and slept at the end of the bed when he got hot and then came back up for snuggles again. He even rooted me off the queen bed once. lol

I caught this one of him last night. We wore him out yesterday. He should do ok while we go to church. We won’t be long and Mom is not going so we will just go and come back since we won’t be running errands, eating lunch out, and grocerying today. So quick trip.

Have a good week ahead. I imagine I’ll be back about mid week! This next week is going to be trying at work. I did not get the data to work on any returns and have been sitting idle for quarter end for about two weeks, so as it all happens this week if I get the quarter end data I won’t have much time to work on it- I have payroll the first half of the week and then I have part of Thursday to try to squeeze in other things. I can’t do some twenty something returns in one afternoon. Mom has her eye injection Friday afternoon so that time is out. So it’s fairly clear QE will not be finished on time but I will do what I can with the time I have and try to do the biggest accounts first so that we have the smallest penalties left for being late. It is what it is. My bosses have been too busy to give me the data needed or to work with me on what is not working with the numbers. I think we figured the latter part out as we finally got to work on it Friday. I might have some time on Monday afternoon as long as time entry goes well. But yeah, it’s pretty clear it won’t be finished on time now. And I was told it was understandable and not my fault. So as long as everyone understands that, I’m good. Even if they don’t I’m good. Because God and myself know what the deal is and what the truth is. I’m not scared anymore of what man can do or what anyone else thinks anymore. We have bigger fish to fry on the grand scheme of God’s plans. QE is nothing compared to what is about to come down the pike. We have some big work to do.

Take care til next time.