Making videos for YouTube is fun. It’s not overly profitable but it’s fun. It can give a visit somewhere a focus as you try to capture something unique and interesting.
What’s even more fun is mashing snips of footage together with music, images and titles right on your laptop. I use Corel VideoStudio Pro x4. Not the most expensive video software and certainly not the latest and greatest (I believe the Corel VideoStudio Pro x6 is their latest product). Yet, sitting at home you have nearly the same power as some Hollywood producers had in the not too distant past.
What follows are the top 10 most popular videos so far in 2013 from my YouTube channel.
TEN
Edmundston, New Brunswick
This quick panorama of Edmundston, New Brunswick was taken after driving all night from Ontario, on our way to Fundy National Park. All the city has ever been to us is a food and fuel stop after passing through Quebec with fumes to spare. The province of Quebec traditionally has gas prices at around 10 cents per litre higher than its neighbours.
Someday, we’ll stop, take a look around and maybe even stay a night. Directly across the river from Edmundston is the state of Maine.
NINE
Princess Cays, Bahamas
Typically the first stop on any Princess Cruise Lines cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale. Princess Cays is a private beach owned by Princess Cruises and is located on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas.
EIGHT
Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos
Because we arrived later in the morning at Grand Turk, this was the only location on our latest Eastern Caribbean cruise that I watched as we came into port. There’s not much to Grand Turk above the water. However, so I’m told, the reef around the island is amazing.
SEVEN
Alligator Swims to Infant in Florida Everglades
This is actually a pretty cool video of an American Alligator cruising across a pond. I went with the Yahoo-style title to see if it got more views. It did. In truth, we were a little worried about pushing our seven month old son around with so many alligators close by. This guy seemed to swim all the way across the pond and directly to where my son was sitting in the stroller.
SIX
Devil’s Hole Rapids on the Niagara River
The most awesome thing you can see at Niagara Falls for free. These are the rapids just below the bend in the river and about ten kilometers from the main waterfalls. The water is amazingly powerful at this point and the volume is incredible. Across the river is Niagara Falls, New York.
FIVE
Orangeville, Ontario Drive-Thru
One of the first videos that I edited with Corel VideoStudio. This is a video I took with my camera duct-taped to the dash and mounted on a mini-tripod. Unfortunately, I didn’t play the lighting very well and there is a bit of glare throughout.
Anywho, this is the town I live in, Orangeville, Ontario, Canada, from end to end. The video was sped up to fit the background music: Faster by the Black Crows.
FOUR
Waterfall at El Nicho, Cuba
With the power of my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS2 waterproof camera, the camera I take all my video with, I was able to get an interesting perspective of this cool waterfall at El Nicho, Cuba. There are a series of waterfalls at this location but this was the only one that you could swim underneath in this manner.
THREE
Downtown Detroit from the People Mover
In March, 2012, my wife and I went to Detroit for the weekend. The main event was the Chicago Blackhawks vs. Detroit Red Wings NHL hockey game. For some incredibly small amount of money, you can hop on the Detroit People Mover and circle the downtown core for as many laps as you’d like.
We took two rounds on Monday morning before we left and I videoed a good portion. Surprisingly, this was a regular business day and the downtown, and People Mover, were basically empty.
TWO
Joe Louis Arena from the Detroit People Mover
Another video from on board the Detroit People Mover. This is a section from Cobo Hall to the entrance of the Joe Louis Arena.
ONE
Waterfall Jumping at El Nicho, Cuba
My buddy Eric and I went down to Cuba in January, 2012. Our purpose was to stay at the lowest star resort we could find to see just how bad it would be. We stayed at Rancho Luna near Cienfuegos. The resort rated as a 1.5 but was a real pleasant surprise. The resort was clean and offered mostly all of what any other all-inclusive in Cuba would.
This video is of another waterfall at El Nicho. It was short but was fun to jump in. The video camera was attached to a tree via a mini gorilla-pod. The El Nicho videos were put up on YouTube before I bought the Corel software and are straight uncut videos. In the video, I’m the one jumping…
