How to Safely Capture Video While Skydiving
Thousands of people per year go skydiving, and it is a fun, thrilling, and slightly terrifying experience. You want to be able to remember such a crazy event, and there’s no better way to do that than through videoing it. If there’s anything that can be called memorable, it’s falling thousands of feet through the air before floating down in a giant parachute. Taking a video is definitely possible while skydiving—you see skydiving vids all the time on YouTube—but you need to make sure that you capture the event safely. While skydiving, remember that your first priority is safety. Everything else comes second. Here are several tips on how to carefully capture video while skydiving.
Attached Camera
Your hands aren’t busy while you’re skydiving until it’s time for the most important part—pulling your chute. You don’t want to miss that. Don’t hold the camera while you’re skydiving. You want to keep your hands free because the most important thing in your life from the moment you jump out of that aircraft and start freefalling is being able to pull out your parachute and land safely. Attach a portable camera (like the Polaroid Cube) to your gear and let the camera do all the work while you concentrate on making it to the ground and having a blast while doing so. Also, there’s always a chance of dropping your camera if you do decide to hold it and no matter how tough a piece of technology is, the chances of it surviving a 10,000+ foot drop are very slim.
Ask the Guide
You can always ask the skydiving guide you’re going with if he or she has any suggestions or will be taking the film. In some skydiving packages, film and videography are included and then you can purchase it at the end. While that might not be your cup of tea, you do need to make sure that you have permission to use a camera while jumping if you’re jumping as part of a guided team.
Helmet Camera
A helmet cam is another hands-free solution that you can look into. Attaching a camera onto your helmet will give a nearly exact replica of your own sightseeing experience while falling through the air, thrill and all. The footage may be a little unsteady as it’s attached to you, who is skydiving, but it will ultimately be steadier than if you’d just decided to hold the camera yourself. A helmet camera is a viable option when considering how you want to record your adventure. This goes for many different action and adventure sports as well. Attaching a camera to your helmet not only reminds you to keep your helmet on, but it also provides a great vantage point from which to snap a photo
Secondary Focus
Above all, make sure you remember that videography is your secondary focus to safety while skydiving and that although you do want to record this experience because it’s so thrilling and awesome, your own safety comes first and you shouldn’t take any extra risks solely for the purpose of grabbing some film. Focus on having fun and being safe—the videography, if you attach the camera or use a helmet cam—will take care of itself.
Hopefully, these tips have given you an idea of how you’re going to balance film and safety while skydiving. It’s definitely an event that you want to record—not many people can say they’ve ever been skydiving—but you need to ensure your own safety first before anything else. Once you have done that, the sky is (literally) the limit!