The GoPro Hero 4 camera has been a game changer for us.
This little camera has completely rearranged the way that we look at photography.
We first bought it to record our daughter’s recovery from shoulder surgery, and we thought it would help her to be able to watch her own comeback. We had several trips upcoming and knew that it would get used for those as well.
We had no idea what we were to learn and what we would come to achieve with this little camera.
Best modern memory keeping device we have right now.
Best modern memory keeping device for our teens.
One of the things that we discovered was even more cool than just taking photos or taking videos was actually turning the videos into photos. We've caught some really great photographs that were in a GoPro video. We didn't expect this one when we bought it, so it was a great surprise when we discovered it. These are some of our most favorite photos from the summer.
things we use it for:
underwater selfies.
this has been so incredibly fun. watching them discover and take this camera into the pool and record themselves under water. teenagers love selfies. how much more fun can you get than to take one underwater where your hair is flowing like a mermaid and there's tiny bubbles coming out of your nose?
Wide angle shots.
this is pretty cool. it's a nice feature of the GoPro that I hadn't expected. it's like a fisheye lens. Capturing the whole surrounding area brings a unique quality to the photos.
lake jumping.
this was a fun discovery this summer, as the kids took the GoPro in their hands, turned them to record themselves and then jumped off a cliff into the water. Most of these are captures from Video. In some cases the video is almost useless as its moving so fast and plunging under the darker lake water. Or the video is so crazy because they threw the camera up into the air to each other to catch as the next one jumped, and yet still from that beautiful mess we were able to capture some amazing stills shots.
Disney ride videos and photos.
So this one we expected, and have done it twice, in 2 different parks, both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. As explained in another post, we used the chest strap to secure the camera to our bodies and even held it at eye level for certain rides and took videos of the rides. Though, our favorite was turning the camera around and recording ourselves riding the ride. This was the best idea we've had yet. Some of my favorite snaps are from this ride.
Snorkeling.
we tried taking snorkeling videos and photos by either holding the camera in our hands and turning it as we wanted to. the other way was mounted. we bought a snorkel breathing tube that had a GoPro Mount on it, at the base of the tube, under the mouth piece. this gave the photos/videos an odd angle that we were not sure that we liked, like either pointed straight down or slightly forward. since it is clipped so low it is not the same track that our eyes were taking when we were swimming, so you had no idea what it was actually filming from your chin's view. the other thing was that when we were in especially shallow water and swimming over coral, you had to be careful not to hit the camera on things.
Surfing.
we did not purchase the surf board mount, but we did have the head strap and were able to wear the camera on our head while surfing. obviously this doesn't give us a visual of ourselves surfing, which would be the visual you would get with the surfboard mount. instead our visual is what we actually saw as we surfed. next time, we'll use a surfboard mount and put the camera on the board and turn it towards ourselves.
Other things we've used it for....
biking
basketball games
regular life videos
driving
drumming in the marching band
training at crossfit
basketball training
At the end of the summer, the kids were able to compile a good chunk of the video into a fun Summer Montage.
This is How We Go Pro.
