Why I Glidecam
***Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post.
I remember the first time I heard of the name Glidecam.
I had just started my sophomore year of college, and I recall my older brother showing me a video that Devin Supertramp made.
This was in 2013.
Who is Devin Supertramp, and how does he get those insanely smooth shots?
Like most college students, I didn’t have the money to invest in expensive gear, so I did what I thought at the time was a good idea, and looked up how to DIY a stabilizer.
I am sure many of you have tried it or at least thought about it. I mean… how hard could it really be?
Well, let me tell you. It wasn’t easy, and needless to say, I never could get my homemade stabilizer to work.
Frustrated, I started saving.
I eventually bought my first Glidecam, the Glidecam HD-2000.
I was so thrilled!
I took it everywhere I went.
However, I quickly learned I needed more upper body strength to support my Canon 7D and a 17-35mm f/4 Tokina lens.
I remember feeling the burning sensation in my forearm as I could hardly hold it steady for longer than 15 - 20 seconds.
How did Devin Supertramp make it look so easy?
How was it done?
The answer. Practice.
You can watch videos on how to properly balance, but until you go out and start shooting all the time, it will never become a part of you.
Like anything in life, if you want to be good at something, you have to consistently practice.
—
Fast forward to 2016.
Soon after graduating college, I took a job at USA Today as a photo/video journalist in Marshfield, WI.
I couldn’t be more eager to start a new adventure.
However, I quickly learned from my editors that video came first, and then the stills.
Once you got the shots you needed to tell the story, you could go back and get a few hero shots to put in print.
Although I never set out to be a filmmaker, I had to adapt to what the job required.
So I invested in more gear that would help me tell better stories.
Because of my Glidecam, I earned three awards for the short eleven months I was at the paper.
Why?
My Glidecam allowed me to shoot stories in a way that put the audience in my shoes. That isn’t to say I don’t use tripods (I believe they have their place), however, with a Glidecam, I was more mobile than ever before.
—
Once I left the paper I was unemployed for almost a year due to a dislocated knee.
From June 2017 to April 2018, I scoured the internet for any job I could.
I worked at a call center for a week before I realized I couldn’t take it anymore. I saw a filmmaker with a RED camera running down the aisle and I thought, that is what I needed to be doing.
At that point in my life, I was just trying to make a living.
My pregnant wife and I were living in my in-laws basement and surviving off what savings we did have.
I can honestly say this has been the lowest part of my 30 year old life.
Never before had I felt more helpless.
However, things changed.
I landed a job at Oshkosh Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, doing video production.
Again, I never set out to be a filmmaker - for I dreamt of a being a photographer ever since I was a kid - but what I had accomplished with USA Today must have set me apart enough.
It may sound cliche to say this, but owing a Glidecam changed my life.
I should probably mention that I have I used other stabilizers as well, to include the DJI Ronin Series, however, I told myself I would never again use the DJI Ronin M3 after I saw my Canon 1DC spinning uncontrollably due to a wire malfunction.
Maybe it was a fluke, but I realized that having to rely on battery power, especially when in remote locations, was something I didn’t want to live with.
—
Enter the Devin Graham Glidecam.
It is lightweight, can easily collapse and fit in a camera bag and is weather sealed, but more importantly, it is simple.
Maybe it is the former military training in me, but I will never forget what our instructors told us: If your electronic equipment goes down, you still need to know where you are on the battlefield.
In my case it was the batteries and complicated wiring that went down.
Not having to rely on electronics - while out in the remote locations around the world - allows me to still do my job because I know that a Glidecam will never fail.
Would I love to get my hands on a Movi Pro from Free Fly Systems? Certainly, but for 90% of what I do, it can be either accomplished with a Glidecam or tripod.
From hanging out a UTV racing down the track, to running up the stairs, there is no equipment I trust more than Glidecam.
Why? Because it is simple.
No batteries. No complications.
As Ken Seagull wrote in his book, Insanely Simple, “As simplicity becomes more rare, it also becomes more valuable. So your ability to keep things simple, and protect things from becoming more complicated, becomes more valuable as well.”
He continued to say, “Complexity loves nothing more than a sea of choices… [Apple] builds a large and loyal following not because of the products it can make but because of the products it chooses to make.
From one professional’s experience in the creative industry, my testimony may not fit your needs, however, I hope that it does encourage you to simplify what you use to create.
When you are free to create on the largest scale imaginable, there is no limit.
—
Photo Credit: Photo One - Tyler & Tanya Rickenbach, 2015 | Photo Two: Tyler filming in Alaska - Taken by Trevor Empey | Photo Three: Tyler filming in Crandon, WI., for WORHEAD - Taken by Thomas Wolf
