I discovered the joys of videography three years ago. I have always wanted to learn more about video editing and would always be up watching YouTube videos about editing or camera techniques. I also watched a lot of videos from my favorite YouTubers, a lot of their content would have plenty of B-roll shots. Luckily for me, the summer of 2017, I was going to Philippines with my family for three weeks. I saved up my money from working as a camp counselor over the summer and bought myself a small vlogging camera.
During my trip, I made three videos for each city that I visited while I was there. Most of the videos contained B-roll shots because I wasn't very comfortable being in front of the camera just yet. I edited the videos to the best of my abilities. Keep in mind, that this was a brand new hobby and I was still learning. I look back on the videos now and I just have to cringe. They had super shaky camera work with captions using the weirdest fonts and we can't forget the cheesy music. However, that did not stop me from posting the videos to YouTube. I figured it would be a great way to see my growth throughout the years.
After a couple more videos, I started trying to do a mix of B-roll shots and vlogging. I became more comfortable being in front of the camera and learned from the cringe-worthy editing mistakes from my previous videos. The quality of my videos became better, the content improved and my confidence increased as well. To practice my new skills, I would put them to the test by helping out a few friends with video content for their Instagram pages. Eventually, my work was getting recognized at the salon that I was working at that a few of the stylists hired me to make content for their professional hair pages. One of the biggest projects I had done at that time was edit my coworker's wedding footage. That was when I realized that I loved being behind the camera and on the computer learning to edit.
Video editing became very therapeutic for me. I would stay up until 4am some days because everything had to be perfect. I obviously still have a lot to learn because the videography/photography industry is constantly changing. Eventually I'd want to learn more about filming with drones.