By now, you’ve probably found out that I enjoy making travel videos. I feel like they best capture the way I experience my trips, and I love looking back at them. I actually prefer making travel videos over taking pictures, and here are six reasons why.
As you might have noticed, I love making videos. Even though I’m not great at it, it’s something I thoroughly enjoy. When I look at the videos I’ve made, I always see things that I could do better in future videos, but that doesn’t mean I’m not proud of my creations.
Anyway, I’ve been making videos for just over one year now, and I feel like I know enough about the difference between video-making and photography to tell you about why I prefer videos.
You can check out my travel videos here.
You’ve heard of “A picture says a thousand words”, now prepare for…
Okay, so a picture says a thousand words. Totally agree with that. Now, think about what a video is. Isn’t it basically thousands of pictures in rapid succession?
The main point I’m trying to make here is that, while it might be perfectly possible to convey a story in a photograph, it’s going to be a lot easier if you can use moving images.
Videos evoke emotion
Again, same thing. I completely agree that photos can be very effective at bringing emotions to mind. However, I’d much rather think happily about that time I slept in a cave in Malta after watching a three-minute video than after seeing a photo of it.
Actually seeing people, nature and other things move around in your (or other people’s) travel videos can be enough to provoke emotions that would be impossible to capture in a photograph.
Travel videos capture the moment
Lights, camera, … Action. Especially for action/adventure scenarios, it’s much easier to make a travel video that captures the essence of what you were feeling at the time than take a fitting travel photo.
Quick situational sketch. You’re on top of a mountain, about to rush down a slope at 80 km/h. Aside from giving the person who watches your video a feeling of what it’s like to ski, they’ll feel the thrill you felt when you were there.
Besides, isn’t it easier to press one button on an action camera than it is to pull out a DSLR camera, take off your gloves, figure out the perfect setting, take the picture, and store away your camera again? Yeah, I thought so.
Videos make it easier to tell a story
By their very nature, videos are more able to convey a sense of story-telling than their still counterparts. The sheer fact that videos can have sound and photos can’t gives video a huge advantage.
In a travel video, you can hear the wind blow through the trees. You can hear the water rush down the waterfall. You can hear the people crossing the busy street as car horns are honking. Try photographing all of that, and let me know how that goes.
Reminiscing just became a lot easier
It doesn’t take nearly as long to watch a three-minute travel video as it does to get through a photo album of your life-changing trip to Australia.
Also, from my own personal experience, I know that you won’t get bored of watching the videos you made yourself as quickly as you would from photographs. Just sayin’.
A travel video gives you a chance to look back on your crazy memories in a unique way. And it’s easy to share with your friends, since you won’t have to bore them with hundreds of photos of the same mountains.
It’s fun
Videos are fun. It’s as simple as that.
I find both creating a travel video out of the video clips that you gathered during your trip and watching the video you made afterwards to be ultimately enjoyable activities. I don’t mind spending hours working on a video to make sure it’s as good as I can make it.
However, it might not be for everyone. If you’re not the one who enjoys grinding to make sure something is perfect, you’re not going to like making videos.
Bonus reasons!
- It feels good to have people watch your videos, be impressed at your skills and tell you you did a good job.
- You can inspire people more quickly and more easily with a travel video than with a blog post or pictures.
- You get to work with some of your favourite music.
- Anyone can do it.
- You learn a new skill that can impress people more than photography could – if you do it right.
Video-making is still a vastly underappreciated art form. I’m not pretending like you can still hop on the train and be one of the early genius artists, but it’ll definitely be easier to stand out and be recognised as a good videomaker than as a good photographer.
I’m also not going to deny that there are situations in which pictures are a better option than travel videos. Essentially, it all comes down to personal preference. I enjoy making videos more than I enjoy taking pictures, and I’m better at it. So I’ll keep making videos. At least for now.
My travel video gear:
What about you? Do you make travel videos? If not, would you consider doing it?
