GoingPro...

“Go pro” said the girl in the advert for a toothpaste, or is it a toothbrush? I forget just now. Anyway, the girl tells us how her dentist told her to go pro... a tad forward and a bit rude I thought, but it turns out he meant she should try some fancy new dental thing that will give 'pro' results – that just cleaned by the dentist feeling. “Go pro” she said... “Go pro.” Well these advertising messages really must work because I did indeed think it was time to go pro, only not with a new toothbrush or paste, but with a camera – I took the plunge and got me a GoPro.

Hayup, new stuff incoming...

I've always liked interesting point of view shots, and those action shots in the car and motorcycle magazines where the camera is tracking the vehicle at speed and you wonder how the shot was made. The answer usually involved rigs in the form of lots of suckers and bits of tubing, a camera ready to be wiped out on a lamp post, and lots of cloning in Photoshop. Either that, or the photographer hanging by his belt out of the boot of a car or something similar.

I have had some success in getting on board motion shots myself using a Manfrotto Magic Arm and Super Clamp, and very pleased I've been with the results too. But GoPros and their ilk kind of spoiled all that, they were cheating, taking the mystery out of the photographer's magic and making weird angles easy peasy. 

No action cameras here - this was the Eos 450D hanging upside down from the Magic Arm.

So I've treated action cameras with indifference, well, up until recently anyway. But just as my head was eventually turned away from 35mm and towards the Devilish Digital, so I found I'd begun to harbour GoPro type desires and fantasies. Anyone who has had secret desires will know the feelings will only get stronger, and sooner or later you have to see if the reality will live up to the dream. So, having spent many weeks pondering and researching online, I finally settled on a GoPro Hero 4 Silver. 

Now I don't know anything about these contraptions at all, certainly not the video side of things, so don't go expecting an in depth review or anything like that. You've all seen those shots on the TV of monkeys picking up a mirror and looking at their reflection in a half confused – half excited sort of way – well that was me when I first turned the GoPro doodah on and peered at the LCD on the back. I was amazed at how small these things actually are, and at the resolution of the rear LCD as I held it up and roamed around the house aiming it at stuff and muttering 'wow' and so on. Little things and all that...

But it's arrival has also coincided with me having a downward period, when I've not had any oomph or interest in anything at all much. Normally a new photographic toy would see me itching to get out and play with it, but at times like I've had recently, even new stuff fails to strike a spark. So I've had the thing a while, turned it on and off a lot, looked at and been confused by the manual, and played with the bag of mounts and harnesses I also got with it. But I hadn't tried it out until today, but even then my enthusiasm still wasn't back to its usual self. So it was just a short ride into the local woods, bung the camera on the chest harness and set off with the intervalometer thing doing its stuff. It wasn't all a success – I let the camera sort it all out itself, it does have 'Protune' which is like manual mode on a normal camera, and therefore provides me with lots of exciting new ways to stuff things up, but that's for later. But the photos taken whilst riding down a very tight tree tunnel (an old Drover's Way) were too blurred to be of use, but that is no surprise – it was dark as a grave robbers smile down through there, and rough too. So it's no wonder the shots were a bit of a blur fest.

But on the whole, I'm very pleased so far. I did try the camera mounted to the left of the crossbar as well, but they were all fairly boring shots of nothing of interest, and I also ended up downloading several yards of photos onto the computer. So next time I'll remember to stop and start the camera as and when I need it rather than set it going and just leave it.

I've not tried video yet - there's only so much wizardry and witchcraft I can manage in one day...

Fairly routine photos these, but today was just about trying the thing out and learning how it all works.

As for the ride, well it went ok, although I've lost a bit of hard earned fitness it seems as I ache more than I'd expect to at the moment. The recent rain made for a muddy ride as well – just as well I took the old snotter then!