Add Venture #2 

Sat Feb 20th, 2021

What is adventure, anyway?

Is climbing Mount Everest adventure? It pushes you to your limits. You can't get much closer to the stars without an engine. And it's not been 70 years, less than a human lifetime, since the first recorded successful climb. Today, though, over 5 000 people have summited and the excursion comes as a packaged deal for the wealthy. It's impossible to get lost on the climb to Mont Blanc, just follow the litter and the vomit. The Inca Trail is similarly "signposted" by human detritus and erosion, K2 and Mount Everest add human bodies to the signage. The Milford Sound needs to be booked months or years in advance. None of those excursions are much easier than they ever were, but are they still the adventures they used to be or just entries in an extreme bucket list for people wanting to prove points to themselves? We can't judge this: the sublety here is that they can be both!

Adventures change you for the better. Bit by bit, step by step, experience by experience. And sleeping in a tent in your backgarden with your children or grandkids certainly qualifies as an adventure - every bit as much as scaling a Himalayan peak - if you've never done it before and come out of the experience with a changed appreciation for the comfort of a real bed, the connection to the outdoors, the sounds of the night, what makes a child truly happy ...

In between the two lies a vast spectrum of experiences, none of which qualify as adventure by default, but only by mindest of those taking part. Getting up 2 hours earlier than usual to photograph the fog on a lake can end in a shallow ego boosting display on social media or can ignite a lifelong deep love for water and canoeing. It's the interaction of mindset and external events that works the magic!

At the very pinnacle of adventure stands exploring.  Adventurers do it for themselves. Explorers do it for others. A big part of exploring is the documenation of what you encounter along the way. Adventure challenges your worldview, just like stories do to their heroes. Adventure is a personal story you are both the author and protagonist of. Exploring helps others challenge their worldview through your documentation of the experience.

In my mind, adventure, exploring and storytelling are inseparable constituents of personal journeys. Stories describe the adventures of others. Explorers describe their own adventures. Adventurers put themselves through stories. Add Venture is a newsletter to help adventurers hone the ability to share their experience, and visual storytellers experience more exciting moments to share.

Live exciting and prosper ;)
Pascal

It's easy to think of Cinema superproductions as so far removed from solo amateur creations that we feel the recommendations of the great directors cannot possibly apply to us. But replace "team" with "I" in all those recommendations of the first video and you will be off to a brilliant start, whether as a photographer or filmmaker. Intention and process transcend budget, crew and gear. 

Another hands-on video from a DP dives deep (and fast) into actor placement, lighting and set design in the most recent batch of Superbowl commercials. The focus on creating depth, hence realism, is present at every stage, and is key to your storytelling in the future: "squeeze as much shape out of every image as you possibly can".

"It's not about gear!"  You bet it is ;) "It's not (only) about specifications" would be a more acceptable sweeping generality. 

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a Sony FX6 camera (more about this soon, on the blog), then had to (temporarily) cancel my order, due of a busy schedule which would have turned the beauty into an expensive paperweight. Before that decision, the battle for my cash between the Sony and the Canon C70 was epic. And this one-month-on review by an intensive pro user will show you the numerous, undeniable strengths of the Canon contender!

If your adventures are going to be sports or wildlife oriented - and if you have the GDP of a small country burning a hole in your pocket, the Sony a1 vs Canon R5 battle video below might be just what you need to choose your next camera. While no clear winner emerges from the confrontation (and with the Sony newcomer likely to make mid-term progress through firmware updates) some of the scenarios in the video might correspond to yours and give you a hint of the best option for your purposes.

Finally, news from the smartphone world. Samsung introduces a 3x optical zoom in the S21 (along with 108 megapixels in its Ultra incarnation, no less). And Apple rumours suggest a 10x optical zoom in the iPhone 13. Both (try to) position range-topping phones as standalone image making tools that require absolutely no external adjuncts to equal the shooting envelope of traditional cameras.

As much as I like camera phones, I don't buy this. By making it difficult to add filters, add-on lenses, grips, cages, ..., phone manufacturers effectively disqualify their products for many thriving segments such as action cameras and effectively confine them to everyday casual shooting that will only convince diletantes. My guess is most storytellers will look elsewhere for their tool of choice.