Stein Divide

~ A Berry Smokey Adventure~

For as long as I have been sharing photos and stories online I have heard more “you should” comments that I can count. Phrased one way or another it has become clear that people would like to see my adventures in video. Being that I really enjoy taking photos, and wanted to focus more on writing I ignored these suggestions. Then about a year and a half ago my sponsor SOG Knives asked me to capture video as part of my trip to Haida Gwaii, so I did. The moment I got on the ferry to cross over I began my journey in filming. As the trip went on I had more and more fun capturing my experience and actually believed I was going to do the video thing. That is until the trip ended, and I sat down to sift through the raw video and clean up the clips to send off to SOG. I absolutely couldn’t stand to see or hear myself on video. Everytime I sat down to work on my assigned task I had anxiety attacks and began to fall into depression. On top of the mental barriers I was also trying to learn new software; a stressful combination. After a couple months of failed attempts I more or less gave up on processing the footage.

As time went on this unfinished project sat in the back of my mind, providing a slow drip of stress into my life. The thing is I really want to push through the discomfort of making videos so I kept capturing footage while out on adventures. Finally the tipping point came where my desire to start an ‘adventure vlog’ overcame the anxiety I felt seeing myself on film and I sat down to learn the process and push through to completion.

What follows is my first ever completed video. Unfortunately the anxiety I experienced trying to process the Haida Gwaii footage was so traumatizing I couldn’t face it first out of anxiety I would have more anxiety. Instead I set to work on a more recent adventure in the Stein Divide; a project I felt less invested in.

As you will notice it is a very amateur video with lots of room for improvements. I intend to make authentic videos sharing my adventures with Frank and personal passions. I put zero effort into my appearance for film, and specifically avoided trying to make my trip seem enviable. It is as it was, and as I am when there is no-one to see me. There was no story developed before hand, I just went into the mountains and filmed what came to mind when I was not focused on the physical task of moving through the mountains.

Some ideas I have to improve for future videos:

– invest in a more compact camera to capture the action

– capture more footage of Frank

– capture more artistic nature footage

– include more tips and area information

– find wind noise solution

– improve steadiness

– say ‘um’ less

If you have any helpful comments or suggestions to help me improve please leave them below.

Thank you for watching, and if you enjoy please subscribe to my YouTube channel.