I'm 31 years old today...
Becoming an old man.
And I'm here in Winnipeg in Canada
and this is actually where I'm from.
My family is half Canadian, so I come back here
every few years to visit my family
and get some cool 360 shots.
I'm here in Assiniboine Forest right now
and I've taken some really epic 360 photos here before.
So, I'm going to try
and replicate one of my best 360 photos
I've ever taken in this forest
right here, right now, with my Insta360 ONE R.
The number one question that I ask myself
when I get to a new location
is, "Where is the point of symmetry?"
Where is the exact middle of this location
because often that's where the best spot
for 360 is going to be,
so in this forest here,
we have 1000s of cool-looking dead trees,
so it's going to be pretty symmetrical wherever you go.
However, some trees are more symmetrical than others,
so I wanna find the straightest trees
that are also the most densely packed.
Once you found the point of symmetry,
next you need to decide on the camera height.
Is it best putting the camera on the ground?
Is it better at eye level?
Or should you hold it above your head?
Well, this will depend on what is around you.
If all the interesting details are up,
it's a better idea to have the camera down.
If the details are down,
it's better to have the camera up.
Finally, I'll decide on the camera settings.
How good or bad is the light?
Do I need to do a lot
or is auto exposure mode going to be okay?
In bright daylight like this,
most modes of most cameras are going to do a fine job,
but if the lighting is tricky,
if it's too contrasty,
too dark, too light,
that's when you wanna go into manual mode.
Most of the time I shoot in HDR mode
because you're never going to have
a perfectly consistent image and location.
Here we have a bit of shadow, a bit of light,
and it's going to be like that in most situations.
Even if the sun is overhead,
there's gonna be some shadowy areas,
so most of the time HDR is a reliable setting to use.
Then when I want some kind of stylized effect,
say I want a silhouette in the middle of the day,
that's when I'll go to manual mode
and manually set the shutter speed of the camera,
so I can get a cool looking effect
that looks different to every other kind of 360 photo
you might have taken that day.
Another thing I'm always thinking when shooting 360 shots
is how I can I give this photo or video a "wow" factor.
Attention spans are this short,
so you need to make sure your photo
is as engaging as possible.
There needs to be interesting stuff in all directions
and not just interesting, but really interesting,
so you always need to look around your environment
and make sure you find the number one best spot within it.
Here I found a pretty cool spot.
I'm inside a massive bird enclosure inside this zoo,
but there are 100s of spots
I can potentially shoot 360 photos from,
so it's important I try out shots
in at least three places.
So, what I'm doing here is purposely lining up the lens
with the level of the water
because I know that will make
for a really interesting element within the 360 photo.
Okay, I admit it: I love birds.
I'm not a dog person.
I'm not a cat person.
I'm a bird person.
So, this is a pretty cool opportunity
to get a shot with my little friend here Mr. Toucan.
Mr. Toucan, meet Kandao Qoocam 8K.
Hopefully, it doesn't scare him.
Or maybe it will.
I think I'll just leave it there
and I'll let him get comfortable with it.
If you look he's getting really close to the lens.
This is exciting.
It's gonna be a really good shot.
The more often your photos can have a "wow" factor,
the faster your reputation will grow as a photographer.
It's better to post one really good photo once a week
than seven average photos seven times a week.
So, you need to think of it like that.
How can I get the best photo possible and only that?
Forget about the rest;
throw out all the other photos.
You just want the very best
because that's what you'll become known for
and you're not going
to become known for seven out of 10 work and below.
It's got to be as close to a 10 out of 10
as you can possibly get.
Another important part of getting good 360 shots
is waiting for the exact moment to strike.
I can see there's gonna be a pretty cool moment
coming right now with all these seals
doing backflips in front of me,
so what I need to do is wait until one swims
directly in front of the lens
and then I need to be able to capture it
as crisply as possible.
So, I'm gonna set my shutter speed really fast.
I'm gonna shoot in raw and see what I get.
Oh, my god. This is so fun.
I'm a fully-grown 31-year-old man
having fun at the zoo on his own taking 360 photos.
That's a bit sad.
Often I find some of my best 360 shots
I've ever taken have ended up being the silliest.
So, photos where the camera is really close to my face
or I just look really weird or creepy
or if the camera's in a really unusual position.
Maybe it's underneath me and I've arched my body over it.
Basically, the more playful
and silly you can get when shooting 360,
the more likely you are to come across a really cool shot
because the name of the game is entertaining your audience,
and if you can make a really silly but fun shot,
then you've achieved that.
The thing is, though, you've gotta drop your ego.
If you care too much about how you're caught on camera,
then you're not going to be brave enough
to try a silly shot like the ones I've got here.
It's all about playfulness and curiosity.
The more playful and curious you can be
when you're taking your 360 photos,
the better your photos are likely to turn out
because you've decided to put camera
somewhere that cameras shouldn't be put
and it really evokes a sense of thinking outside the box,
and that is what makes photos stand out.
You always want to try (camera clicks)
and make something your audience has never seen before.
There's no one-size-fits-all approach.
It depends on the situation you're in,
depends on the light,
depends on the architecture,
the landscape, the weather conditions.
So, there's no guaranteed way of getting a good shot.
This is where creativity comes into play.
And the more amount of shots you can come up with
at any given location,
the more likely you are to get an awesome shot
every single time.
All right, well, that's it for today's vid.
Hope you had fun.
I know I did.
This was a good birthday.
I'm gonna go find me some fish to eat now,
so I'll see you in the next video.