Let’s talk mobile photography and videography. One of the greatest benefits of working at The Studio is the access it provides to some pretty fabulous tech that I would normally classify as luxury items. As we prepare to launch into our new spring season Studio sets – one of which is mobile photography – you, too, can share in the joys of free access to awesome gadgets.

I have loved photography since I was a kid. I was given an old-fashioned 35mm Olympus camera when I was 8 years old (the kind that required rolls of negative film with only 28 exposures) and I was hooked. There was just something about the attempt to preserve an impermanent point in time and the challenge of setting up the shot and framing it in just right way that always appealed to me. Needless to say, I was incredibly happy when photography became more accessible and, well, mobile. I could suddenly take a camera with me everywhere I went, no longer afraid that I could miss an amazing opportunity to capture and share the world around me. As updates for our mobile devices advance, the cameras on our phones become increasingly versatile and portable, and they produce higher-quality images and videos. The one thing, however, that an updated phone has yet to solve on its own is the dreaded shaky video.

We’ve all been forced to sit through a home movie comprised of such wobbly video frames that it makes us nauseous – or we’ve created those kinds of videos ourselves while on our way to becoming better videographers. (Raise your hands on that one!) Without the benefits of warp stabilizer tools that can be used when editing your videos in post-production (stay tuned for future blog posts on video editing software like Adobe’s Premier Pro), we’re left to our own devices when searching for ways to create smooth hand-held shots and clean panoramic pictures. One gadget that immediately becomes useful in this situation is a mobile gimbal stabilizer, a handheld tool that operates on a rotating three-axis system – like a gyroscope – moving your phone in a 330-degree field while balancing your phone so that the screen continuously faces you. This set-up comes with the added benefit of allowing you to narrate the action of your video without worrying your fingers will block your phone’s microphone. With the gimbal’s joystick function, you’re able to pan cleanly from side to side without moving your body, take perfect panoramic photos, and produce stable, professional-looking videos.

A good quality mobile gimbal will set you back about $200, with a handful of budget-conscious options also available on the market. You can take one out on a test drive at The Studio at Anythink Wright Farms. For those hoping to explore mobile photography – or take their game to the next level – we invite you to join our upcoming prorgams or stop by to tinker.