Nine months of Lost Target Videos

I've been putting up shoot videos for nine months.

I've come a long way but still learning!

Posting videos was something I wanted to do for at least a year prior, but I did not want to purchase a camera that required the use of tape and I could not find a reasonable priced digital camera that fit my needs. Canon final came out with a camera that fit my needs and my pocketbook.

I purchased a digital video camera for ease of moving the video from camera to computer and ease of editing.

I wished I'd spent a few hundred dollars more and bought the next model up, but I didn't know what I know now.

As with the still camera my rule is try not to embarrass anyone. I'd rather not use the video if the person did not hit a target or seen doing something stupid.

A windy day can mess up the sound. I'm thinking of using some type of material on the camera to muffle the sound of the wind, as it can be very distracting.

Closer is better. Sometimes I forget : (

A tripod is a must! For close-ups I can hand hold the camera, but anytime I use the telephoto lens I'm better off with the tripod.

Sunlight is my friend, especially if I hope to get a good camera shot of a breaking target. As it is, targets have to be relatively close.

It's pretty easy to get a shot of a target in flight at a trap shoot, not so easy in Bunker trap unless you sit on one station and read the traps. A hard time getting a good shot of a sporting clays target unless the targets/machines are close.

It's funny, but I find you don't need to hear the ref call lost when I'm shooting a video, as the body language or facial expression as seen on the video display says it all.

I'd post names of shooters, but most times I have no idea.

As with posting photos, in many cases using less video is better, as it can get boring very quickly unless it's your home club and you know all the shooters.

I like to have a beginning and end to the video, to include music. Some may not like the music, but something I enjoy.

I've been forced to cut back on my musical selections, as YouTube has been rejecting videos with copy right material. I recently had two rejected and had to re-submit with the original music replaced.

The video process from start to finish is very time consuming. With photos I can have a shoot posted within an hour from the time I arrive home. With video, my goal is to have it posted within six - twelve hours and not always possible if I have a software hiccup or I just don't have any energy left after a long day.

Not only do you have the shooting of the video at the shoot, but it takes a couple of hours if not more to edit a video. I may have a hundred short clips if not more to look at and edit. Also, have to check for swear words and embarrassing moments.

Almost two hours to render the video as a file that can be used by YouTube. I could cut down the editing and rendering time considerable if I had a more up to date computer, but a new computer purchase is not in the cards at this time. You need a modern processor, a 512 video card, if not higher, and 4GB of memory if your going to do it right.

I've replaced a couple of posted videos as I was not happy with the editing.

Not always happy with YouTube as many times they degrade the quality of the video and you lose detail when viewing. They also from time to time have problems counting video views, and not all views are counted but they think they have it fixed but some who post videos on major sites think otherwise.

Two videos scheduled for this weekend. One I'm not participating, just attending the shoot with cameras in hand. No way I can participate in every clay target shoot scheduled as it would blow the budget. I attended three shoots this past winter where I did not bring my gun, just my cameras. I can honestly say I enjoyed attending the shoots with just a camera...

Lost Target Videos