so yeah I got slapped by a stingray in stingray city and I liked it now you're
saying yourself whoa whoa whoa what's Stingray City Grand Cayman what's that
all about well in this video today I'm going to tell you where I went what's
going on with all these stingrays why I got slapped how I survived and laughed
about it and I'm also gonna give you tips since this is a channel about how
to be a better filmmaker and content creator I'm gonna give you tips today
about how to film stingrays so in Grand Cayman Island there's ferries that take
people out several miles I say about a 45-minute boat ride out to the middle of
the ocean and out there there's an area sort of like a sandbar where you can
stand and you get down off the boat there we go risky ways City refreshing
that water and all around you all these stingrays come and swim around you
because they know you're gonna feed them so these boats go there every day and
they feed the stingrays so I guess the stingrays have sort of gotten used to it
it's totally weird I know so the thing about this spot is that the water is
crystal clear and you can see everything underneath and the water is only up to
about your waist so it's really cool because you can walk around even though
it's in the middle of the ocean the water is really shallow and the
stingrays just kind of swim around and it's really easy to film them feed them
hold them and just hang out with them the first thing you might be asking
yourself is is this safe don't stingrays have a stinger didn't Steve Irwin the
Crocodile Hunter died from a stingray attack okay so I'm gonna clarify
everything so stingrays yes they do have this little barb at the end which they
show you when they get there all the stingrays have this barb and it is quite
dangerous if it can definitely extinct you or injure you
however all these Barb's at the end are removed now I don't know how they
removed every single barb from all these stingrays or there's like a like toll or
a gate to get in and the Stingray is lying up
there like up you got a barb you can't you can't enter nope you want you want
your barb cut ok cool now you can get in I don't know if it works that way I
don't know what's going on but it is safe because obviously I got slapped now
when I got slapped the barb the stingrays tail went right across my neck
where that barb would have been if they didn't cut it off so have you seen the
video the video happened really fast I'll slow it down a little bit and it
was shot with a phone this is actually I went with my cousins it was my cousin's
wife who shot this on her cell phone from the boat and you can see the
stingrays tail and it just goes across my neck right there and it was so
unexpected I just started laughing because it was kind of like it was just
buddies it was like the stingrays lapped me it was like hey what's up give me
food man and I just loved it I don't know I'm an animal lover so an animal
antagonist so it fit both of those descriptions but they took us to another
part where we swam it was much deeper and here's a baby stingray and as you
can see he has a barb I don't know it's hard to tell but he has a barb there and
he was just swimming along the ground and he's a little fish were following
him and then he kind of went into the sand like burying himself in the sand I
don't know what he was doing but it was kind of cool I'm going to get into tips
about how to shoot stingrays you get really cool video I just wanted to give
you a little more backstory about this place and what's going on so a lot of it
is planning if you go at the wrong time or you don't quite bring the right
equipment you're not gonna get the best video so I just want to talk about that
a little bit one thing I wish I had done was bring some squid because stingrays
eat squid so if I had stuck some squid in my pocket I could have used that and
the crew on the boat comes with this bucket filled with squid and they give
it to all the people and people get to feed the stingrays and the stingrays go
crazy one-step bucket comes out and they see that squid and that's when I got
slapped across my neck my cousin Dan he got slapped in the back
and the stingrays just go bonkers it's pretty awesome of course if you do bring
squid don't really tell anybody because I think it's frowned upon and another
thing I would recommend is don't go on weekends I went on a weekend it was
super crowded there was a lot of other boats there too and there was a party
boat with some music which kind of like took away a little bit from the area I
would have liked if there are fewer people so I could have spent more time
with all the stingrays I'm kind of selfish I want all the stingrays to
myself because I'm such an animal lover I just wanted to hold them oh wow and it
sounds weird but they they feel kind of slippery and smooth but it's really cool
and they like humans almost like a cat or dog they'll come up to you and it's
really an interesting experience but on the weekends it gets so crowded that
there are a lot of people however there are so many stingrays there that's not
like you're not gonna have time with the stingrays like everyone gets to hold the
Stingray hangout with the stingrays so it's really fun now if you want to get
some cool shots what you got to do is bend your knees and keep your arms down
below and the stingrays will be basically swim right up to you and you
can hold them you're supposed to keep the blowholes under the water but I got
so excited and I think the Stingray got excited when I first got off the boat I
think I was the first one who got a stingray he came right up to me
there's a rope near the boat and he kind of hopped up on my shoulder and he was
like flapping his wings or whatever you call him and I was leaning against the
rope and he kept doing it I felt like I was in a WWE wrestling match and I was
like I'm good I'm good and he's like tap out tap out and I'm like I'm good I'm
good it was pretty buddy so you can keep your
arms down low and just bend your knees and the stingrays will come up to you
you have a much better chance of getting a cool video or photo now for some
reason the stingrays love my cousin Corinne she's a mother I don't know if
it's because she's a mother and they see that motherly feeling or attributes that
mother motherly touch so to speak that nurturing aspect of a mom but all these
stingrays would come up to my cousin more so than myself or my other cousin
Dan went right up into her arms and she got to kiss them and other people were
kissing the stingrays so you can get some really cool shots if you just keep
your arms low and just wait hang out and show the Stingray some love now what I'd
recommend is bringing some goggles or like a snorkel so you can go underwater
and actually see them so when you're filming you can see your camera the back
of your camera while you're filming them I used a GoPro and a DJI Osmo action
those are great because they get wet so obviously you're gonna want to bring a
waterproof camera but these little action cameras are so amazing because
they shoot 4k they both have pretty good audio as well
and you can just put them down into the water now if you have two cameras and
you want to get one in slow motion and one normal you could do that as well I
think that would be a good idea and you can do a setup like this or you can
shoot one with wide-angle and one with more of a zoomed in angle I think that's
a nice setup having two cameras side by side I have this Manfrotto selfie stick
the nice thing about it it it goes out to about four and a half feet and I can
put it down almost like a monopod so I could get some nice still shots filming
it was really cool because this thing has got really good grip and it's really
sturdy so I could get overhead shots and film everybody from above or I could go
down I could extend it all the way and I could shoot down near my feet and there
was only a few feet deep but it's still I didn't have to bend down that far and
I could put this stick down there and get some shots the thing about it
without the goggles I didn't use the goggles which I probably should have
you're kind of guessing like I'm just kind of aiming it at the Stingray and if
you're shooting in slow motion that's great I shut it 240 frames per second
you could do 120 frames per second would also be good so slow motion is much more
forgiving everything looks great because you can just capture a few seconds a
really good frame shot and it will look awesome because you slow it down and
that lasts a long time whereas you shot that in normal and then moved your
camera it's gonna look kind of herky-jerky
look amateurish what I recommend if you're gonna shoot in normal mode and
even in slow motion I'd recommend getting some goggles and just holding it
in one spot so I noticed when I was filming or when my cousin was filming we
were moving it around a lot trying to capture the stingrays and you can do
that that's cool to get a first-person view if you want to get right with the
stingray and follow him that's a cool shot however for most shots you're just
gonna want to hold the camera down or upside down in that angle and let the
stingray swim across the frame it's gonna look a lot more professional
especially when you're not shooting in slow motion but as I said having goggles
will enable you to go down into the water and you can
look and see what you're shooting or hold your breath with a snorkel get a
snorkel that way you can go underwater and the stingrays I notice they swim a
lot near the bottom so they come up or they swim a few feet above but mostly
they were down low and to get those really nice shots down low you're gonna
really want to get under water so you can frame up the shot nicely you can
just aim the camera at them but again you're just kind of hoping that you get
the shot if you want to really nail that money shot I would try to get down low
and be able to see the back of the screen and make sure you get it while
you're down there one thing you can do is slant the camera up when you slant
the camera up or have it looking towards the surface of the water and extend this
thing really low you can get some cool angles because the stingrays have these
awesome mouths and they have these gills and they have these little holes all
over their body I think it's for oxygen and you can't really see it from above
because it's all grey but underneath it's all light and being able to see in
a mouse it's just kind of weird-looking it's really interesting angle it makes
for a really intriguing video so I would recommend doing that and if you do it I
would recommend shooting slow motion at least 120 frames per second but 240
frames per second or even slower is really nice slow motion all right guys I
hope this was helpful and next time you go and swim with stingrays or go to
stingray city and grant came in you can get some really amazing video and before
I go I want to show you some cool video I shot with a GoPro Hero 7 and the DJI
Osmo action of stingrays City
alright guys that's it don't forget to subscribe to my channel give this video
a thumbs up if you found it helpful or enjoyed it my name is Brett Garamella
with BrettGaramella.com. Drones for reel!