Shooting in the dark with GoPro HD Hero2

It’s no exaggeration to say that GoPro has changed the world of adventure video making and created a niche market in sports photography. GoPro’s cameras are designed to be strapped onto helmets, bikes, boats, and it is about capturing action from the adventurer’s perspective. For those who want a high-quality fun tech toy to capture life’s adventurous moments,  the GoPro HD Hero2 is the way to go.

Don’t be fooled by its size and toy-like looks. GoPro offers durability and a sealed housing that can submerge to a depth of 60m. It has a super-wide lens, which is great for action shots by allowing you to record a large field of view with the fish-eye lens. Its small size, variety of mounts, and waterproof case make it ideal for capturing zip-lining, windsurfing,  and underwater adventures.

I jumped at the opportunity to borrow one for fun and give it a test drive. I decided to do so without reading the manual and see what I came up with.

This morning as I edited my first pictures [not got to video yet] I decided to do some research figuring out all the settings and learning how to best use the camera for different purposes.

The more I searched Google it was clear just like anything else it is going to be practice, practice, and more practice, especially since there is no viewfinder option. YOu are literally shooting in the dark.

One of the things I want to learn how to do is set the camera to take a photo every so many second. I read about a guy who set his up to do this while moving the camera around. He said, “You’ll end up throwing away about 400 photos, but you’ll get ten that are really cool.”

I also bookmarked a write-up for a  workaround to use the camera to film non-action sports while avoiding the fish-eye effect. Now it is time to go read the manual 🙂

Here are my first few pictures with a GoPro, video coming soon. I used the head mount and tested that on the back roads of San Pablo.

Featured image courtesy of mymodernmet.com