Paddling around The Canal in Indianapolis

    Ok, so I did not think that we would be going back to Indianapolis so soon after our first trip. But when I asked Joy where she would like to go for the weekend, her response was Indy. I was surprised by that really because the last time we were there, it rained the entire weekend. It just was not much fun for either one of us and I just assumed it would be a very long time before we returned. Personally though, I was excited by the idea of going back to Indy, just because there are so much to see and do in this beautiful city. Most of the activities we wanted to do there was outside, and this weekends weather forecast was hot, dry and sunny.  Mission accepted.

    Since I work second shift, 3 to 11:30 pm, it is difficult for us to get an early start on the day. It would have been best if we would have woke up at 5 am and entered the city at no later than 7 or 8 am. That way, it would not have been so hot on us. But that was not the reality. We arrived to the city at 1 pm and it was very hot at that time. I personally did not mind the heat because at least it was not raining. I will take hot and sunny over cold and rainy! We park at the Circle Center Mall parking garage and grab a bite to eat at the Asian Chao Oriental Eatery. Then we make the long walk to the canal and to the paddle boats. I am surprised by the amount of people playing Pokemon Go!  Everyone, everywhere playing that game!

    So I have found out that the life of a YouTuber and video making is not always an easy one, and handling all of this equipment is a rather difficult chore, especially when trying to work a paddle boat. Since I am still new at video making, I am not the most efficient at it, nor do I have the most efficient equipment for it. I have some very nice cameras and I believe the quality of the video speaks for itself. But for what we were doing on this day, my setup was just a hassle and I just could not get the best shots. Trying to hold a selfie stick with a camera at the end of it, making sure that the camera was pointed at me somewhat leveled, speaking into it clearly and coherently, and steering the boat was truly a mission impossible. I now see why most of the top YouTubers use GoPro setups along with one high quality DSLR as their main camera. The GoPro's can be strapped to the body hands free and continuously record, and they can also be mounted on whatever equipment you are using at the time. The DSLR can be used for hi def stills and videos. So instead of juggling three different cameras with one hand, I can just handle one camera with one hand and GoPro's doing the rest of the work hands free. This will be my setup in the future.

    I am hoping that the video that I created did the park justice because it is really a beautiful area. The paddle boat was worth the price and we felt that the experience was fun and enjoyable. I did not think much about exploring Indianapolis until the 2012 super bowl where journalists, fans and attendees praised the city and gave it rave reviews. That was eye opening to see and hear because over at least the last 20 years, all I have heard about was how the Midwestern USA cities were in a state of decline. It is nice to have a city so close to me that has modernized and is looking forward to the future and not backward into former glory days. Adapt or die, Indy adapted. I cannot say the same thing about other cities that are close to me. Thank you for reading and please subscribe.

*Product links are to my Amazon Associate website. It is created through Amazon and is perfectly safe to click on.

My equipment that I currently use to make my videos.

Equipment that I recommend to start making videos for YouTube

Equipment that I want to own in the future

Bluespring Caverns, Our Journey to a river beneath

    This week we went to Bluespring Caverns, and this was our last stop on the Indiana Cave Trail. After yet another six days of working, exhausted but excited, we hit the road to Bedford Indiana. For us, this was just over an hour drive across mostly flat farmland, with corn as the view. Not a particularly fascinating road trip to say the least, but sightseeing the country side wasn't the goal on this day, floating along an underground river was.  We arrive to the park just after 1 PM and there are quite a few people there, as was expected for a Sunday.  We find our parking spot and set off for our tickets, hand in our Passports and receive our reward shirts. Well that was the plan anyway. Of course they were out of shirts, but they took our information and promised to mail the shirts to us. As of this blog post, we have not received the shirts. Kind of disappointing.

    After receiving our tickets, we waited for thirty minutes and then we were called to the departure area to begin our tour of the cave.  Walking down to the cave was somewhat of a challenge. The walkway to the entrance is steep, and if a person struggles with a disability or is out of shape, that person will be challenged to finish the walk both to and from the cave.  The closer we walked to the entrance, the cooler the air became. It was a welcome relief do to the hot summer air that had moved into the Midwestern USA.  The tour guide had us stop just in front of the entrance and gave us a brief history lesson on how the cave was discovered, who owned the property and the approximate age of it. After the speech, we move into the cave and make our way to the boats. The cave was well developed for tourism with it having concrete walkways and handrails for easy access to the docks.

    Ok, I have been in many caves in my lifetime but this was the first underground river that I have experienced. Sure Indiana Caverns has an in the cave boat ride as well, and it was an amazing adventure, but Bluespring Caverns was completely different. The entire sixty minute cave tour is all on the boat, so there is not much walking besides the walk to and from the boat dock. This made working with the camera much easier because I did not have to worry about where I was stepping and was free to take photos and video. What a stunning journey. I had no knowledge of what we would see in the cave before we went and I did not view any YouTube videos about Bluespring before we went. No camera can truly do this place justice and it must be seen first hand to be fully appreciated, but I did the best I could with my camera to capture the awesomeness of the cavern.

    After the tour and our exit out of the cave, we made our way back out to the car to grab our lunch. We ate close to the gift shop where there are picnic tables and this is where I took the time-lapse photography. When we were finished with our lunch and time-lapse, we made our way back into the gift shop to buy our bags of mining materials. We were hoping for more mineral mining like we experienced at Marengo Cave, but all they had for us was fossil and arrow head mining.  It turned out to be a fun experience, especially finding the arrow heads. Shortly thereafter, we left the park and headed home. Bluespring Caverns should be on everyone's bucket list, it is that grand. Looking back on the journey, going on the Indiana cave trail was definitely worth the time and expense, and who knows, maybe we will do it again in the future :) Have a great day and please subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me on Blogger!


Equipment that I currently use

Marengo Cave, Marengo Indiana

      "You can take as many pictures as you want, but please no video," said the tour guide. "It is for your own safety," he said. Ok, I am rarely the one to break any kind of rules at all. As a matter of fact, I usually go out of my way to follow them. But when a person is trying to start a YouTube channel, that person needs video footage to be successful. So this is where I was with this weeks vlog. The main reason why I was there was to capture video, along with seeing something really cool and amazing.

      So this weeks video started off with some frustrations, even before we arrived at the cave. As I have stated previously, my usual schedule is Monday thru Saturday. It is a rare occasion that I receive two days off for the weekend. So once again I wake up exhausted. We finally wake ourselves up and hit the road, grogginess be damned.  In this video I began once again with my strategy of beginning, middle and end. With the road being the beginning and end, and the cave being the climatic middle.  The road to Marengo is what I believe to be a scenic drive and I really enjoy the views. Watching the video footage afterward doesn't really do the views justice, it really is a nice drive. Yes I know, I have dirty windows and videoing through them is not a good plan, but hey, I want my viewers to see the sites.

      So being told please no video was frustrating. There is no other way around the disappointing feeling when I had to put away my camcorder. Luckily for me, the FinePix shoots full 1080p, 60 frames a second video along with taking decent quality pictures. As an added benefit, it is water proof and shock resistant, so in reality, it is a good choice in this type of environment. I knew from previous experience that being able to record video in the cave that was dark was going to be a challenge, after all caves are dark, so I decided to take lots of stills with the flash. This turned out to being a great idea because most of the pictures turned out bright and clear. I only had a few that turned out poorly due to me walking or the lens building up condensation.

      Taking much more pictures than video led me to the idea that I could incorporate the pictures in with the video and for me, the video turned out great. Mixing the pictures in with the beat of the music has given me a new insight into video editing and I hope that this will be enjoyable to the viewers.  There is nothing I hate worse than watching shaky video where the photographer is walking and moving the camera around a lot.  It gives me a headache and I'm sure it does that to just about everyone else as well. I try to avoid this in my videos as much as possible, but with the equipment that I currently have, it is impossible for me to remove the shakes completely. Having the stills incorporated into the video makes, for me at least, a nice break from dark shaky video. I am looking forward to viewer feedback from this technique and I am hoping that I will receive some useful critique which will lead to better video making. Trust me when I say this, I am all ears. Thank you for reading and please subscribe.

Cameras used:

Fujifilm FinePix XP80 This was the only camera used in the cave and walking to the cave entrance.

Canon VIXIA HF M41 Ok the link I provided was for the M40, but they are the same camera, Just mine has more memory. But it doesn't matter, they are both obsolete. This camera was used everywhere else in the park. This Canon VIXIA would be a better buy. I do not own this one, but I may in the future.

Canon Rebel T2i  This camera was used for the time-lapse photography. This is an older version of the Rebel line and I would not recommend purchasing this one at this point. The newer versions of this are so much better. I recommend at least a Canon Rebel T4i. The newest version of the Rebel line being the Canon Rebel T6i. I would love to own this in the future when my budget permits it.

Our trip to Indianapolis

      Ok, I am going to level with you here. I was really looking forward to this trip. Indianapolis is only about an hour drive from where I live, but that puts the city just far enough away to make it impractical for a day trip, or just to be able to roam around the city for a while and get a bite of food. There are many reasons why I was excited about going to Indy, one of them being my wife's birthday weekend, and the other being that I am new to film making. Cities just make an exciting place to shoot video because of all the architecture and just everything that is going on around every street corner. I had this image in my head that I was going to shoot a lot of amazing footage and have a big breakout moment.

      So as I mentioned in my previous post that I received an unexpected day off and was able to go to Squire Boone Caverns, and that I ended up sleeping until noon. So since I slept half of the day, I was not able to experience and enjoy everything that the park had to offer, including the zip-line tour. I should have taken that as an omen that things were not going to go as I have envisioned it and nothing would go as planned. Late Friday night, July 1st, I viewed the weather forecast from my trusty smartphone and yes, 80% chance of rain......For the entire weekend.  This is something that I did not expect in early June when I booked the hotel for my wife's birthday weekend.

      We wake up early Saturday morning, July 2nd, pack our things and head to Indy. Our first stop was the Indianapolis Zoo. This was something we had planned to do all along on our first day because we could not check into our hotel room until 3 pm. So the plan was to spend the morning at the zoo and then check into the hotel later that evening. In this plan we were successful. The rain had not yet arrived, but it was definitely cloudy. I enjoyed the cloud cover because it made the temperature cooler and more enjoyable. As you can see in the first video, there were many people out enjoying the zoo and I captured what I believed to be amazing video.

      Later on we check into the hotel and roam around the city to get a feel for where everything was and to scout out some great places to shoot video, time lapse, and so on. Indianapolis does truly offer many exciting places for these activities and on future visits I will be exploiting these locations for some great vlogs. But unfortunately on this trip I did not get to do this. Our weekend there was from July 2nd thru July 4th, with July 3rd being when most of my filming would take place. Rain, rain and more rain. Not only did we have non stop rain, but it was an extremely cold rain with hail. So early on the 4th after eating breakfast, we called it quits and went home. I shot what I could so at the very least, I could have some video to practice with. Overall, it was not the trip that I had expected and envisioned, but I do feel like I did pull out two decent videos from the weekend. I had fun playing with the footage anyway :) Have a great day and please subscribe!

Cameras Used:

Fujifilm FinePix XP80 Waterproof Digital Camera   (This camera was used for most of the sped up footage in my first video. The people at the zoo, at the mall, and on the the sky bridges)

Canon Vixia HF M41---I do not believe that this camera is available for purchace anymore so click here for a newer version of this. I used this camera for most of the video at the zoo and on the second day of shooting. All of the rain scenes were shot with this camera.

Canon Rebel T2i -- This camera is now obsolete. You may be able to find it on ebay or something, but the new versions of this are so much better.  I believe my next camera purchase will be this one. But anyway, All of the true time-lapse footage was shot with the T2i. I did have to buy a Neewer Shutter Release Timer Remote Control to have time-lapse with the T2i.

Squire Boone, Indiana Cave Trail Part 2

      The downside of having a career is that one is always married to their job. Working a standard forty hours a week, over five days is just a fantasy really. In the reality, one puts in six and sometimes seven days a week for their chosen corporation or business. And that is just the way it is.  We do this without much complaint because it funds our Hierarchy of Needs. I mention Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs because it explains why we willingly give so much of our lives to one corporation or business, and to me it explains very well why we rarely leave these companies. In Maslow's model, which is shaped as a pyramid, the bottom two and most basic needs are the Physiological needs (food, water, warmth, rest), and Safety needs (security, safety). These two basic needs are essential for our survival and the modern day survival tool is money.  The sacrifice for our time, knowledge and labor for the exchange for these most basic needs is an easy one to make. Starve or thrive, this is our choice.

      Also on the Hierarchy of Needs pyramid are the Psychological needs (Belongingness & love needs / Esteem needs) and Self-fulfillment needs. I believe that most of us never reach this last step in the pyramid and somewhere along the line we just give up trying. Self-actualization is achieving one's full potential, including creative activities is the highest and most fulfilling of all the needs. To be able to reach this level into the model has meant that one has achieved and fulfilled both their basic needs and psychological needs. To be in a position where one can have the time and the tools to create and attempt to achieve their full potential is truly rare in this world and it can take a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice to reach this last step. More than likely, it takes several generations passing on their knowledge and resources for one to be able to reach Self-actualization.  This is where I am now, and this is my journey into achieving one's full potential.

      Now I mentioned earlier that one usually works six to seven days a week and is married to there job. That is me in a nutshell. I am still doing this and have been doing this since age sixteen. That is the age I landed my first job and from then on, it has been six to seven days a week of both schooling and working, for twenty three years and counting. So to achieve creative activities are mostly done on one, sometimes two days a week, at least for the video creations. I would love in the future to be able to pour all of my time and efforts into these creative activities.  

      On this particular week I received some good/bad news, it depends on one's point of view. For me it was good news because it meant that I would have the opportunity to have one more day to create than expected. So upon receiving the news that we would have a business shutdown on Friday July first, I made plans to go to Squire Boone Caverns & Village. To be completely honest, I was really excited for this trip because they offer a zip-line tour. I was having visions of zipping through the air, camera capturing my excitement the entire way. Well that didn't go as planned, I was so exhausted from working those six days a week that I ended up sleeping until noon!  by the time I ate my breakfast, prepared for the trip and traveled there, it was just too late for the zip-line tour.

      In this video I continue on with beginning, middle and end in the same fashion as Vlog 3. Traveling to the event, the event, and traveling from the event. The first part of the video and all the way up to the cave tour was shot with the Canon Vixia HF M41 ( here is a newer model), and also the last part of the video leaving the park was shot with the Vixia. The cave portion of the video was shot with the Finepix xp80. I believe that this was the correct camera to use in this cave simply because of all the water. This particular camera is waterproof and I was having water splash all over it. Unfortunately, some of the water got on the lens and ruined many images. Another lesson learned in film making and shooting in challenging environments. Overall though, I believe that the camera performed well under the circumstances.  The video editing software that I used was Corel Videostudio Ultimate X9. ( here is an older version of this software).  I am still learning the software, which I believe to be a very user friendly and powerful program. It has many features built in including forward and reverse, and variable speed. In this video, I play around with some of these features. I was so focused on the fact that I could at this point, I didn't stop to consider if I should. In retrospect, I wish that I did not play around with the water wheel. It gives the impression that the bearings are going out or something. Anyway, thanks for reading this and don't forget to subscribe :)

Equipment that I currently use.








    

Indiana Caverns, Indiana cave trail part 1

      Story line, this means everything in the world of entertainment. A movie can have great special effects, great actors and great scenes, but without a great story, the film will flop. Everything else comes secondary to story. What is a story and how do you write a great one? A story line, or plot, can be written into three parts according to Aristotle, a beginning, middle and end.  The beginning is where the plot is set up and where the journey begins, the middle where most of the action happens including the climax of the plot, and the end where everything is resolved.  An example of this being successfully implemented was in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. In this trilogy, there is a clear beginning where Frodo is a happy goal lucky hobbit, but then inherits the ring of power. This action kicks off the middle of the story where Gandalf sets him on his journey to destroy the ring, and an end where the ring has been destroyed and Frodo moves on.

      All successful films, TV shows, books and so on have these three parts to the story, the beginning, middle and end. So how does this relate to YouTube content creation and this video? I do not personally see a difference between the formats, it is still all about the story. So in Vlog 3, Indiana caverns, I make my first attempt at beginning, middle and end. The beginning of the video I describe where we are going and film the journey there. The middle where we tour the caverns and the end where we journey home. Since this is the beginning of a four part series, I am also telling a greater story in which we are on the Indiana cave trail. This is our first stop in this greater adventure where we pick up the Indiana Cave Trail Passport, have it stamped in each location, and receive our prize in the end.

      The cameras used in this video was the Fujifilm FinePix XP80 and the Canon Rebel. The FinePix was used for everything except for the cave. I thought at the time that the Canon Rebel would have done a better job in the cave, and I would have been right if I knew my camera better. See, I did not go to film school, and I didn't take photography classes or anything of the sort. So all of this is new to me. My major mistake was auto focus. When shooting in a low light environment, flip the switch on the lens to manual focus and turn the dial on the camera to full auto. It makes for some stunning shots. Don't worry, I figure this out by the fourth part :)  Thank you for reading and please don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and to this blog.

   

Spring Mill State Park, YouTube video # 1 & 2

 
      I have been thinking of producing YouTube videos for years and on June 19, 2016, I finally made my first real video. Originally I had planned to start creating YouTube content in 2012, so from 2011 to 2012 I bought all the equipment that I needed. I bought a Canon Rebel T2i here is the newest version of that, a Canon Vixia HF M41 and here is a newer version of that. But things did not exactly go as planned, in a good way :)

      Early in 2012, I received what was to me a life changing promotion with the corporation that I work for. I moved up from quality assurance, a job I performed for ten years, to team leader. This came with a large increase in pay and I immediately knew what to do with this, I went back to school. So for the next two years I was hard at work both working six days a week for the company and going to the University full time. Since I already had earned an associates degree thirteen years earlier, I only needed two years to complete my Bachelor's of Science degree in Business Administration. After I graduated October 2014, I decided to find my lifetime partner and I began my search for her. This search brought me to the Philippines where I met Joy, and on May 17, 2016, we married in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  After settling into our new lives, the doors of opportunity opened wide to begin my YouTube dream.

     Now I did miss a golden opportunity to begin filming in the beautiful country of the Philippines, but at that time I was not thinking of making videos, I was thinking of life and marriage. But the idea of showing Joy around my state of Indiana, her new home, led us to Spring Mill State Park and to our first video.  We arrived at the park early, around 9:30 am, well for us it was early. On a normal day, we sleep until 10 am because of my shift at work. This was a very hot early summer day and it was already becoming uncomfortable at the time we arrived. Our first goal was to relax at a picnic table and enjoy our lunch. This is where I started filming. Of course none of that made it in the video, but it was our way of getting used to being in front of a camera. After lunch we walked to the pioneer village, which wasn't too far from where we parked the car and had our meal, and began to shoot video. To say I was uncomfortable in front of the camera and with the camera would be an understatement. I am not camera shy exactly, but I would say a more precise description of what I was feeling was camera awkward.  Not only did it feel funny to put a camera on a selfie stick and point it at myself, but it also felt almost embarrassing when I noticed everyone staring at us doing this as we/them walked by or crossed paths.  But one must begin somewhere, and this was our somewhere.

      After leaving pioneer village, we drove the car to the Inn and parked there. From the Inn, we hiked to Donaldson cave. I filmed most of the hike there, and most of our visit to the cave and its cool waters. The problem is, I forgot to talk into the camera, which makes for a terrible vlog! Another problem was, there were just too many people there to shoot a really great video. That is the downside of going to a state park on a Sunday, but when I only get one day off a week from work......
So when I edited the footage, I just made a music video out of it to document that yes we went there, and to show others how beautiful the area is. The video is just over two minutes, but trust me when I say this, it was a long sweaty walk. Hiking down to the cave wasn't much of an issue, it was going back up.  Anyway, thank you for viewing the videos and for reading this :)

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