Saturday, July 11, 2015

something new !

There are a couple things about me that are fairly apparent just by reading this blog. In particular, I'm a bit of a media junkie. What else is there to say, other than that I love pictures? (And videos! And GIFS!!! All the gifs all the time. Seriously, Amanda's gif tutorial changed my life haha.) 

A less obvious thing is my obsession with helmet cam footage. To the point where I tried to DIY a 'faux pro' (perhaps the loneliest tag on this blog... evidence that the idea was a bust, whomp whomp). This video of Doug Payne and Running Order (complete with analysis) was actually one of the deciding motivators in choosing to event. 


But really, helmet cam footage from any source - like fellow bloggers Carly, Amanda, and Britt, but also pros like Elisa Wallace or Ingrid Klimke - ranks pretty highly on the list of things I like to watch.


So what's the natural next step??



yep this is happening!
You guessed it!! 

hard not to look awkward lol
So yea. This is a thing now and I'm SO pumped for it. There were a couple issues in actually busting the camera out for the first time (like a missing charging usb cable, grr). 


closer look at the harness
And this harness (purchased separately) is... not great. Esp for the price I was expecting a little more. In fact I might still return it. 


ignore the dusty helmet!
The problem is that the camera sorta flops up and down. I could potentially add another loop of elastic to the helmet's harness to hold the bottom down more securely...


retractable usb charging cord also bought separately bc buying from 3rd party amazon vendors is apparently unreliable
The camera also came with a few adhesive mounts which look pretty good, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to commit to gluing something to my one and only helmet. Does this mean I'm considering getting a second helmet? Mebbe. We'll see tho. 

In the meantime, bc of the shake factor there's no real footage worth sharing yet (obviously not stopping me tho...). BUT. I'm pumped haha. Keep an eye out for a seriously improved cross country course experience! 



this is a less shaky clip too... .so yea it's not great yet
Also, if you were curious about the source material in this gif - the camp kids at our farm recently built an entire baby xc course! So obviously Isabel and I had to get out there and see what it's all about. Everything is a bit on the small side (biggest fence is the barrels), but there's a nice variety of 'looky' jumps and otherwise technical (like skinny) fences. 

So here's a little tour of the course via helmet cam screen grabs!



jump 1 made from pallets
jump 2 is the 'brush box' (also pallets) that Isabel legitimately tried to stop at the first time... smh mare
straw bales for jump 3
jump 4 is the barrels - Izzy wanted to gooooooo haha
jump 6 is kinda interesting looking (jump 5 was the ramp above in the leader pic)
stacked logs for jump 7
white box at jump 8
jump 9 is stacked tires that are apparently verrrrrry spooooooky. and since these pics were taken a faux ditch has been added after the tires
jump 10 is a surprisingly skinny roll top

What about you - what's your favorite type of media?


24 comments:

  1. yes! i had a chance to win a gopro at work and my manager won it and i'm like da heck you going to do with that?! give it to me!!! i look forward to continued helmet cam media!

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    1. Haha seriously - your manager should have totally passed it along to you- office morale and all that ;)

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  2. Nice! I love pretty much all media as well!

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  3. Finally!!! And yes, you definitely need another helmet. The skull caps are the best for the Contour mounts because you can just pull your cover over the mount to hide it when you don't have the camera on. Looking forward to soo much helmet cam footage!

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    1. Well I guess that it was fate. Tack of the day has One K skull caps on sale today. This is totally happening!!

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  4. LOVE IT! It looks like the shake is coming from either the place the elastic that holds the camera attaches to the elastic helmet strap, or the elastic helmet strap shaking. I've got a couple of ideas on how you can DIY some stability here without permanently modifying your helmet!

    1. Make a new elastic holster (elastic is pretty cheap at places like JoAnns, as I'm sure you know) and use thick, stiff elastic and cut it kinda small for your helmet. That will help the elastic ON your helmet stay steadier. For added grip, a line or two of hot glue on the inside of the elastic (obviously don't glue it to your helmet, just put the lines on the inside) should stabilize even more. You want it to be squeezing your helmet but obviously secure enough that it's not going to go flying off with the motion of the horse.

    2. Along with this, make yourself a new camera holster. I'm thinking you could use a piece of cardboard either inside the holster or on the inside of the elastic helmet loop to help stabilize this part. The jiggling probably comes from give around the seams, so if you can somehow tuck the seams behind this piece of cardboard, maybe there would be less give?

    Regardless, excited to see future helmet cam footage!!

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    1. Great ideas!! I'm definitely all about DIY type approaches and would love to solve this puzzle that way... But then again this harness as it is was actually way too expensive to buy more stuff to fix it... Probably returning it for that reason ugh. We will see tho!

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    2. Really, it was expensive?! It's like two pieces of elastic, right? Return that sucker and buy the ingredients for a new one for like $10!!!

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    3. well 'expensive' relatively speaking, i should say. it was $25. which imo is way too much money for the two pieces of elastic that don't get the job done haha. so yea, i just initiated a return through amazon, hopefully the seller isn't a jerk about it!

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  5. Yesss I'm so excited for this! I love watching helmet cam footage :)

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  6. oh this is gonna be fun! sometimes your blog posts are like picture books and i get the entire jist just by reading the photos :P you must spend a lot of time.. b/c i can barely pull myself together with the photos i do take!

    is there a way to make a harness that straps it to the top of your helmet? i think you can eliminate that bit of helmet that shows up in your photos/images. if you can sew, maybe try to DIY with a non-elastic strip that they use on bags with the clips? if you add that adjustable component... maybe that would work too. alternatively, what if you strap if on your chest instead of your helmet? GOPROs strap on the chest and on the helmet... maybe get inspiration from their accessories. i'm really excited though.

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  7. Honestly I'm probably just ordering a skull cap as that seems to be the most secure option, and I would really kick myself if some convoluted DIY either failed or continuously got shitty footage (like at a show, when there's no way to tell if the set up is working until you upload the video later).

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  8. Love helmet cam videos and pics!! Such great perspective and so exhilarating to watch!! Sorry to hear it's a bit wobbly, I'm sure with some trial and error you'll find something that works. The first time I used mine I thought it was recording the whole time..but guess what! It wasn't!

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    1. i love helmet cam too - can't wait to start using this one! and the wobble is fortunately unrelated to the camera

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  9. Haha I'm a media junkie too! It's an addiction lol. I like videos but since I blog etc exclusively via my phone now, I am mostly limited to photos. Love your new helmet cam setup! Hope you are able to figure something out to help keep it steady!

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    1. i'm just gonna order a skull cap to use the adhesive mount. easy peasy, right? and what a bummer that the phone app doesn't make it easier for users to upload different kinds of media. i really can't stand the thing!

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  10. What a fun little course! That is something I think I could do lol

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    1. it was super fun!!! and yea you and Ries would totally own it :D

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  11. O-M-G I'm so excited to see helmet cam gifs!!!! although I will be happier when the shakiness is resolved, I got a little queasy watching it, although I suffered through because I enjoyed the video so much.

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    1. Haha yea the shake factor is definitely no bueno. And that clip was from a GOOD section- it can actually be much worse... Hopefully I've got a few ideas to resolve the problem tho!!

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  12. =D awesome!! Looking forward to more GIFs and a full review of the camera and strapping situation

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    1. yessss the media cometh!! and probably i'm just going to go with the manufacturer's own adhesive mounts on a skull cap. just seems like the safest and most secure route. will follow up tho for sure!

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