Walking the PCT is a game. Games have rules of play.
I have been pondering the type of video to make.
Watching so many others on Youtube has helped clarify things I like and do not like.
I like raw.
I do not like contrived.
Contrived,” like, one sets the camera down and films oneself walking to or from where the camera was placed. There are other forms that contrivances might occur, but that is my meaning here, for that is a common example.
I do not like music overdubs. I prefer the sounds of nature. If one can’t get that, then silence.
I like good sound.
I have a Zoom camera with superb audio, but it, the batteries, and the charger add over a pound and a-half to my load. But in bringing all that audio gear, I would get great sound! Much better than most of the videos I see. The resolution on that Zoom sucks though. I got it for recording live music in stereo. It records conversations well too.
To be decided. Lets us see what my final load out becomes, remembering my purpose is art, and good audio will or might enhance that. I shall have to test this. It is the only way I can know.
Regarding technique I have been testing my little folding solar panel’s ability to recharge my battery power packs, and honestly? It does not seem to work at all. I am currently testing to see if it can serve as a secondary panel for my backup power bank that has a solar panel already. I should take a picture.
But add almost another pound.
The things we do for art.
But as for videos, they are power consumptive! I do not have the ability to recharge my batteries hardly at ALL in the wild. That setup in the photo is pretty much enough to charge my phone twenty-five percent in a day. Bicyclists can take a bigger panel and truly SOLVE this, but not I, not this trip anyway.
And I say all this because it does bear on the rules. By limiting myself to short, pithy videos, I can keep my upload times down, and by this means, I can keep my town days minimal. If I can possibly recharge my batteries by means of solar in the field, ideal!
But if I bring my Zoom camera, I will have no solar means of charging its batteries, yet I do have four batteries!
Rule: Limit Town Days.
Having to find outlets to recharge my batteries is contrary to that rule. If I bring my Zoom camera, I will have great audio, and this is on my purpose line, but I will also add weight on my back and time in town. So…
No.
It is enough I am bringing my tablet to draw with. No one does that. My goal is a drawing a day. The setup in the photo can keep my phone charged for minimal use. My phone does audio and video even if neither are very good.
So be it.
Next topic, I do not like videos that show backs in front of me at all, walking or otherwise. I do not want to look at anyone’s backside. And no eating videos either. Food, maybe, but no eating.
So…
Raw. Clear sound if I can get it. Nothing staged. Pithy commentary. No backsides. No eating.
At this writing, to meet my own standards, I need to go from 210 pounds to 185. But that is, realistically, gaining 12 pounds of muscle and losing 37 pounds of fat.
Walking 2,500 miles in a year might accomplish that.