Enthusiastic Amateur Videographer, I can't quit my day job!!!

[James Lee]

Greetings:

I'm a very very amateur videographer.  I went from hand-held stabilization to purchasing a used Varizoom Flowpod with the lowflow head.

I like to video nature shots, my son and his friends, family vacations and hopefully some video documenting of my co-workers and what they do in the field.  My day job is supporting users (Biologists & Engineers) with their computers (yes, I'm a computer geek but it pays the bills).  These folks do a lot of field work, they currently take stills and incorporate them into presentations which they give at various Environmental Conferences.  I thought the next progression for them would be to incorporate video into these presentations.  If my idea gains acceptance, I might be able to convince my employer to buy some video gear.

Right now, it's my hobby and I am financing it.  Not sure if my decision to purchase the Flowpod stabilizer was the right one or not.  I don't own a fluid head tripod or even a monopod and I thought that having this unit which double as a monopod was a big advantage.  Already, I can see that I will need a lot of practice.

I've been impressed by Jacob Waage's Jib and demo video (boy would that make for some very impressive footage of my co-workers in the field).  I hopefully plan to build my own soon.

Thanks,
James Lee
Sacramento, CA

[Wade Francom]

Welcome James,

Feel free to pry at all of us for the answers you seek. There is a wealth of videography information to be gained here. If there is anything we can answer, just speak up, and we'll come a-runnin'.