Introducing: The Bird’s Eye View Camera
One of the biggest challenges for me when I make my wet felting tutorials is taking photos where people can clearly see what I'm doing. Hundreds of the photos I take while I work are useless because my shoulder is in the way, my hair sticks to the lens, or the whole picture is at a weird angle so that no one can really tell what's going on. Now that I'm beginning to put together video tutorials the problem is even worse. My husband has to try and keep the camera still, find a good angle to record at, and avoid bumping into me as I move all around the work table.
After weeks of setting up tripods all over my workshop trying to figure this out I finally have a solution. I purchased a small video camera and hung it up from the light fixture right over my work table. Now anyone who looks at my video tutorials will get a bird's eye view of the action without the camera moving around all over the place or being stuck at an odd angle.
We are still working some of the kinks out of this new process though. Since there is only one window in my workroom whenever I stand in front of it and block some of the daylight from getting in the camera goes a little wild trying to readjust. Lighting in general is a problem, making the video look grainy sometimes. The camera also swings a bit when the people above us start to walk around. But generally I am very happy with the results. When this new setup works well you can really see exactly what I'm doing as I make my hats.
It will still be a few weeks before I am able to offer video tutorials for sale, but I'm hoping this will be a whole new direction for the way I do digital lessons and tutorials. If you are interested in getting an update when I post my first video tutorial then use the e-mail signup sheet below. I will send you a newsletter with all the details, but only when there is a new tutorial or workshop to tell you about (I do not send any other promotional materials so don't worry about your inbox filling up).
