Interesting day paddle, Spike. Doesn't seem to be very cold in the winter down there.
Your microphone is very sensitive. What kind of camera and microphone are you using? Also, are you using a tripod in the canoe or some other mount for the camera? It looks as if it is close enough that it's preventing you from quickly air-switching your bent shaft paddle for speed going upstream.
For cinematic variety, you might try adding a cook kit and shooting some meal making. Folks are interested in the camping attributes of canoe travel.
Thanks for the welcome feedback Glenn,
No it doesn’t get too cold in these parts over winter. It was 4C at the launch site that morning… and probably 15C by the mid-afternoon return. Sydney has a temperate climate, so we are blessed with year-round paddling opportunities.
Whilst you can see I am wearing a lavalier microphone with Rycote fluffy - it is a Clippy EM272 attached to a Deity HD-TX recorder in my PFD - most of the audio in this video came from the on-board microphones of my GoPro Hero9! As with video editing post-production, post-production is equally if not more important for the audio component. Whilst I edit video using LumaFusion in iOS, I find that the LumaFusion audio tools are limited. So once my main video timeline is edited, I export the audio .wav file and airdrop it to my Mac. I use Reaper as my main DAW, but in this case I only needed to run the audio through the standalone version of Izotope RX8 Standard (the latest version is RX10). I ran an EQ to refine to my voice tonality and birdsong whilst removing some low end rumble from inevitable wind noise, then a mouth de-click, a de-esser, and finally ‘normalized’ to -17LUFKs for optimum sound listening levels in YouTube. I then render the audio, airdrop it back to my iPad, add back to the timeline in LumaFusion, balance and audio and sound effects, and render the completed video for export to YouTube. A roundabout approach but worthwhile for an enhanced listening experience of the nature sounds and paddle in water effects.
In a subsequent video I compare the results from the GoPro9 to my Canon 1DX2 with a Rode VideoMicPro+. The GoPro stacks up surprisingly well, both in audio and video terms - especially the automatic horizon levelling! Since filming this video I have added an inexpensive HSU ‘Windslayer’ foam cover (from Amazon) to my GoPro, which significantly ameliorates the distracting wind ‘rumble’.
I do usually carry my Zoom F6 field recorder with me, along with my Sennheiser MKH416 shotgun mic, a couple of Clippy EM272s for stereo effects, and two wireless lavaliers - but they will feature more in subsequent videos.
Yes, the GoPro is on my ‘big’ tripod - a Sirui R4213-X secured/tied into the canoe, with an Acratech Video Ball-head! This is a complete overkill for a GoPro, but is actually there for my big camera as well. No, it doesn’t seem to get in the way of air-switching the paddle…
I fully agree with the camping, camp cooking and fishing aesthetics of canoe tripping videos. So far, given the diversity of lake and river paddling opportunities within a couple of hours from home (I live 75km south of Sydney) I have limited myself to 20-30km day paddles over 5-6 hours on the water, and where appropriate have overnighted at the start or finish in the lavish comfort of the Kombi. This means I tend to just graze on fruit and muesli whilst on the water… and no one needs to watch me eating an apple or peeling a banana! Your suggestion is definitely something to think about for future trips… I am taking the canoe with me on a 3,200 km return drive to Adelaide in late October and plan to break up the trip by paddling some sections of the mighty Murray River (Australia’s longest river at 2,508km or 1,558 miles)… so hopefully will have more time to incorporate those complementary filmic aspects! Meanwhile, I have four more trip videos to finish and socialise, which have been delayed by inconvenient blindness episodes then Covid… so much for my aspirations for consistency.
