Go Pro Envy

Dearest Rachel –

So yesterday found me saying one last goodbye to the gang in the booth, as well as the praise team, over the weekend. As I spend more weekends working the booth than not, it’s going to be weird not doing so for at least thirteen straight weekends.

While hanging out in the green room between services, our keyboardist was showing footage she’d put together from her recent (as in, she’d just gotten back either Friday or Saturday) visit to Australia and New Zealand. Specifically, the footage included shots from when she was scuba diving amid the Great Barrier Reef and swimming through the glowworm caves of Waitomo (both of which I intend to visit, albeit not to the extent that she went to. I’m not sure I’d be able to learn to use SCUBA equipment, in particular, and in any event, my eyesight in bad enough in air – it would be virtually impossible for me to see much underwater to really appreciate what would be passing before me). Bear in mind that this is what she intends to make her life’s work; while she’s been working as a flight attendant for the past several years in order to make a living for herself, she’s also been working on her Master’s degree in oceanography, which she wants to make her real career. So for her to venture into those waters was the most natural thing in the world for her to do to celebrate having just earned that degree.

As an aside to that mention of her degree, I should mention that she’d actually invited the worship team to attend her graduation – albeit in jest, since it would be held in Kent, Ohio, in mid-December – a few months previously. And for a moment or two (because I have the freedom to do so), I actually considered taking her up on that invite. You see, there was a brief moment in time when I found myself wondering what sort of life companion she might be – I hesitate to use the usual word here, for no other reason than that such an option seemed like the absolute last thing she would want out of life, so the thought never went anywhere out of my own head space until right now – right up until I discovered that she was still taking university classes. Even if they were graduate level, that still meant she was probably half my age at best (and indeed, I’ve since learned that she’s only in her late twenties, despite her lengthy life experiences – clearly, I’m a lousy judge of age, but given what you looked like at fifty, can you blame me?) and therefore not someone I ought to pursue seriously.

Of course, you might reasonably ask, if I’d already ascertained that I shouldn’t pursue her due to her studies – which, along with giving an indication of her considerably lesser age, also made it clear that she had no intention of being anchored to this place, which is, after all, about as far inland as one can get – why I might have considered attending her graduation. All I can say is that the road trip there would have been an unusual experience, a chance to get out of town for a bit during an otherwise hectic season… and hey, just because she ought not be considered as a partner doesn’t mean I can’t or shouldn’t support her and cheer her on in her successes. 

December having been what it was, the thought completely slipped my mind in the chaos of Dad’s illness, and so any questions regarding whether I should do this or not were rendered moot. So ends today’s shaggy dog story.

However, let me get back to the footage she’d taken, which was absolutely beautiful. Schools of fish, a manta ray gliding above her camera position – she was particularly enraptured with that, because she got to tag that ray for geolocation purposes, which made it only the fourth such ray in the Australoceanic region to be so tagged – and constellations of light attached to the ceiling of a cave. Very impressive stuff, and really well edited. 

I have to confess that I found myself somewhat jealous of what she had put together, and wondered if I was properly equipped to assemble anything like that for you – essentially concluding that I probably couldn’t. Looking at the beauty of what she had shot, I began to realize that I was out of my league in terms of cinematography. She did mention some of the equipment she used – a GoPro camera and “my own editing software,” the latter of which didn’t tell me much – and I thought I might look into it to see if it would be worth investing in, to make the footage I plan on shooting worth watching.

Honestly? When I sifted through Amazon, I discovered to my shock that GoPros aren’t cheap. I think I assumed they would be almost disposable, given the sort of things I see them put through to get the “perfect shot.” I should have known better; they’re designed to take pictures and video in extreme situations, so they would have to be that much more durable, and therefore considerably more expensive than I thought they would be (of course, in my mind that begs the question as to why someone would let them be put in such potentially hazardous situations, but that’s the point – they won’t break in those situations, unlike the human body that might be carrying them. Which is why they’re ideal for drone photography, too – not that I intend to get one of those, either).

In any event, I’m not expecting to really do much that could be constituted as “extreme” over the next few months, so getting one of these cameras would be pointless. Besides, I want to be able to talk to you as I’m filming (or maybe, more accurately, narrate over my footage to you) – it didn’t cross my mind that, while I was watching her footage, the only “narration” she had in her footage was the occasional caption here and there – fairly typical for a TikTok style video, but I’ve no interest in creating that type of video. My point is, her formatting was vastly different from what I intend to do right from the jump, but I wasn’t taking that into consideration as I was taking this in, and drooling over the quality of her production.

Basically, for now I have to accept that I’m not at the level of a professional YouTuber or TikTokker, nor will I ever be, most likely, and that’s okay. These videos – like these letters – are for one person, and one person only; if others seem them and like them, that’s fine, but that’s incidental. There’s no point in developing GoPro envy when I know I wouldn’t be getting the use out of the thing it deserves to be put through.

Anyway, I have the day – and the week – to deal with, so I’ve got to go. Keep an eye on me, honey, and wish me luck; I’m going to need it.