Sunday 22 February 2009

Cameras: The double edged sword

For a number of years now I have purposefully avoided recording my training. I figure that if I need other people to watch my achievements then I am not training for the right reasons. I’m also kind of worried about being just another camera junky. Doing something impressive and then running to my camera to prove to the world that I’ve done it. But recently I’ve begun to wonder, is the camera really all that bad?
It has definite advantages: you are able to quantify your training and watch your improvement. You can train a move a hundred times until you get it perfect for the camera. You can record yourself doing it and watch what makes it good and what makes it bad. It’s also especially good when you train in isolation. When in groups you have some comparison to measure your own success against. When by yourself, you can only continue training against your own mental discipline. But with a camera, you can keep a list of things that need doing and focus on specific areas of your training till you like how they look on film. Plus, it’s always fun to put together cool videos of yourself jumping about…
Hmm, maybe an investment is in order…

1 comment:

  1. For years, the camera has been my only friend. It is only fairly recently that other people started doing parkour in my town and even then, they aren't experienced enough to give me proper critical feedback. If you film yourself then you can avoid being a "camera junkie" by just not uploading the footage to the internet! ;)

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