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Lesson Info
5. The River: Kayak, Underwater, and Drone
Lessons
Intro
01:21 2Gear: Alex's Travel Kit
17:27 3Camera Settings
11:45 4The Beach: Sunset & Sunrise
12:41 5The River: Kayak, Underwater, and Drone
04:58 6The Ruins: Light, Lenses, and Composition
07:02 7Cenotes: Concepts
08:18 8Editing 1: Sunset at the Beach
15:17Lesson Info
The River: Kayak, Underwater, and Drone
(camera clicks) In this chapter, you're coming with me on a solo kayak mission to a turquoise river near Tulum called the Grand Cenote. So here I show you how I approach a quick adventure by myself. It's more fun to go with friends and take photos of them but sometimes plans don't work out and I end up soloing things. I'm going to tell you how I stay open and have all my senses available when I go out. So you can pick up things and come back with solid shots as well. And the thing is you don't always need humans in your shots. It's easy to rely on that. This chapter is all about following your gut and making it work by yourself. (upbeat music begins) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music fades) (water trickling) It's about seven o'clock, I'm at this river slash cenote. And when I saw it online I got really excited because it's actually a river. You can follow it. The Yucatan doesn't have many rivers. So I thought I'd check it out. We got to the river about one hour before the sun wa...
s gonna set. And the bonus of getting to these places at these times is that usually everybody's gone. So you have the whole place for yourself which means no retouching people out you're just on your own devices. You can just let your creative juices flow. (calm music) To get solid images, you need solid light. So I shoot 90% of my work either at sunrise or sunset. Yeah, I feel like this is gonna speak underwater. We should go get the underwater housing because the sun at this time of the day, whew, we don't have much sun left. (calm music) So here after my initial scout, something I hadn't planned for became obvious as much as it's fun to kayak this river honestly, the most impressive photos lie under the water. (calm music) So first, when you get somewhere you wanna make sure that you scout it properly. I can't remember how many times I shot a photo somewhere. And then I found a way better place just down the trail and reshot the same photo again, but better. So scout first, take time to watch and take the place in, not just with your eyes but with all your senses, like listen, smell it might give you ideas for what photos to capture. (calm music) I noticed these leaves floating in the water and they didn't look like much at first until I swam around them and saw that the setting sun was back-lighting them making this crazy glow around them. (calm music) (calm music continues) Little pro tip: when you're shooting photos in the water with a GoPro or a camera, grab the life jacket and put it under your belly so you can float more easily. Trust me, it makes the process much more enjoyable. This is hands down my favorite shoot of the whole workshop because I'm in no agenda or schedule. I'm just on my own time, letting things flow. It's just pure innocence. And I always seek that when I take photos. So try not to always be on a schedule follow your gut and just play. (calm music) So the most common thing people do is snorkel but I thought I'd spice it up a bit and go for a kayak first, then snorkel. Partly because I do a lot of kayaking back home. So this just works for me. So this summer, when you're trying to pick what to do during your trip pick stuff you like doing don't try to force things and do something just because it looks cool. (calm music) So that's it for the solo trip at the river. I hope this will inspire you to slow down and observe on your next trip. It is not always about epic scenes. Sometimes it can just be a dead leaf floating in the water think big and small, wide and tight and even more importantly, follow your gut and go the extra mile for your photos. If you think you have to jump out of the boat because the water's cooler underneath, do it. You might regret if you don't. In the next chapter I head to these very, very old ruins called Coba which are in the middle of the Mexican jungle.
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Ratings and Reviews
ZHIYUAN SUN
True Inspiration and amazing way to tell stories with photos
Student Work
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Adventure & Sports