I Started Filming Myself Fishing and Hunting One Year Ago. This is the Gear I Use.

I have a friend who has been regurgitating the same sentiment every fall for the last decade. Every group of friends who endeavors into the woods together always has that one buddy who loosely says he’s “going to start filming this year, I just need to get my shit together.” When I decided to start a YouTube channel in the late summer of 2021, I created a logo, bought the copyright to my brand, and began to recklessly scour the internet for any video recording equipment that I could stuff in a bag and bring along on all my trips. I got my “shit” together before I ever told anyone that I had to.

By no means do I have a large following at this point in time. My channel does not generate any revenue one year after its founding and I have no sponsors that pay me to use or promote their products. I am a late-twenty-something with a desire to make a name for myself and a budget that comes from working long nights and weekends. I don’t possess the funds to have the same gear The Hunting Public, Googan Squad or BlackTipH uses, those channels have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, huge paid sponsorships and large online stores to sell their branded items.

The first thing I knew I needed was a camera (duh). Over the years I had browsed cameras on Amazon during Prime Day or around Black Friday because that’s when those types of items are heavily pushed out to the public. I always support shopping locally, but there are few other places where someone in my position could get as much bang for their buck. My first purchase was a Canon 2000D DSLR camera bundle, sold from an independent camera shop through Amazon Prime. The camera came with a Canon brand 18-55mm lens, two batteries and a battery charger. That was the extent of Canon specific products in this package, the rest of the gear was made by Commander. A large camera bag, wide-angle kit lens, a telescopic kit lens, a handful of UV lens filters, neck and handheld straps, battery powered flash and a cheap aluminum tripod made up the rest of the bundle. My camera came through the mail two days after I purchased it, and I was officially $559 deep into my YouTube career.

This was great, the Canon 2000D shoots amazing photos in high resolution, and shoots video in full 1080p. But I knew I also needed a smaller camera to wear on my body. GoPro was the only choice for me. I actually remember getting a Hero 2 when I was in high school, so I did have a little experience, even though it had been years. GoPro had just launched the Hero 10 Max in the fall of 2021, with most retail shops in my area looking for $500. Luckily, the Best Buy down the road carries a few different models, so I was able to get a brand new Hero 8 Black for just under $300. I actually just went back there the other day for some GoPro accessories and it looks like they just launched the Hero 11 now. My advice would be to not get too caught up in thinking that buying a previous year’s GoPro model will set you behind. My Hero 8 shoots in 4k, slow-mo and time lapse. I liked the first one so much I bought another one. All together with the two GoPros, an ever-increasing supply in mounts, SD cards and accessories, I’m buzzing the tower with just under $900 in action cameras.

If you’re reading this for advice or if you’re thinking you want to start filming yourself, I’d recommend stopping here. All you really need to start is a ‘big’ camera and a ‘little’ camera, in my opinion. If you’re familiar with the content I uploaded on YouTube, then you know I now have more gear than that. Soon after I bought those cameras I also spent $500 on the DJI Ronin, a gyroscopic gimbal I mount my Canon to that can create some cinema quality shots. I find it most useful on the boat or in the truck. It is incredibly hard to bring that into the woods because it doesn’t pack well at all and weighs about 8 pounds with the battery attached.

The last piece of recording equipment I’ve purchased for the channel (so far) is a drone. I purchased a DJI Mini SE this past spring, and I’m still blown away with how good drone technology is today and how readily available it is to everyone. The Mini SE folds up into about the size of a beer can and is incredibly light, so it’s perfect to throw in a backpack and get outside. The camera shoots in 4k and is mounted on a gimbal below the two front rotors, which creates unbelievable shots that would impress Christopher Nolan. The charging port is a USB-C, and when the battery is full, I can get a half hour of flight time. I have absolutely no experience flying drones before this year, so I can say that the Mini SE is incredibly simple to operate seeing as though I am able to use it with ease every time I go out. I bought this drone for $280.

Lastly, I want to mention what I use to edit everything together once I am back home, and I think this is just as important to talk about as recording equipment. I use Cyberlink PowerDirector to create the videos I upload on YouTube. Most people I talk to in similar positions use Adobe Premiere or Lightworks, and those are also good options. The one thing I would urge anyone to avoid is grabbing a link to download a free software membership. Options are extremely limited and will affect the end product. I pay $15 per month for PowerDirector, and additionally I pay Epidemic Sound $15 per month for royalty-free music I can use in my videos. It’s easy to tell when other pages use Epidemic because we all end up using some of the same songs.

That’s the long-and-short of it. I have some other smaller items like a field mic and SD card wallet, but those items are just the sprinkles on the icing on the cake. Doing this the right way takes a ton of time and even more money, but I can honestly say even to this point for me it has been worth it. Knowing that if I stay on this trajectory for a few more months I can be a part of the YouTube partner program is enough to keep me going, and right now it’s just awesome for strangers and good friends to let me know that my work is cool. I really hope I can look back on this post a year from now with a lot more perspective, and until then I can only offer this friendly bit of advice: go get your shit together.