GetRhythm,
That is why I was careful to mention at the very start of my post that threesomes were the major exception to what I was describing. With 2 chicas there is always an extra one who can hold the camera while you and the other gal are otherwise engaged at the height of your performances. Of course, you might also have been referring to an extra guy there to do the camerawork, which might be a possible solution for some guys as long as the cameraman sticks to his job or else at least sticks to his side of the chica, but personally I'd rather not go there.
Guys,
Believe me, I understand about the technology. I've also tried 2 tripods. A full size one and a mini. The full size one works great for home videos but seems to me to be a lot of excessive weight and bulk to lug along on a CR trip unless one is SERIOUSLY into their videoing. The mini is much more easily packed but limits you to placing it on nearby tv's, tables or other furniture. Ultimately, I agree that just placing the camera on those objects works NEARLY as good, however it does make it a little more difficult to lock the camera into a steadily aimed shot that won't slip. Either you leave it lying flat and improperly aimed or you prop it on top of something else to adjust the aim. Books are steadiest but limit the angles you can use. Towels are more easily adaptable but are subject to more slippage. And there is a limit to the angle you can aim it at with either of those bracing methods.
What's more, whether you use a tripod or not if you opt for the place aim and shoot approach, you failed to address the 2 other MAJOR problems I mentioned earlier which you'll have regardless of how fancy a camera you use (unless, I suppose, you have one on a tripod and some sort of dolly system with a remote control, but even then).
1) Getting up every few minutes to change your shot and tinker around with books, towels or tripods trying to aim and zoom in on your playground exactly the way you want is a MAJOR disrupter of the natural flow of a session. Do it less often and you get less varied shots and you might discover later that you accidentally moved out of frame while you were changing what you were doing with the chica.
2) You also have to choose between picking a wide shot that takes in your whole bed and covers you whereever you may move on it after you set your shot but WON'T get the detail of the close-up OR setting it for a close-up where you may sink out of shot as soon as you get back on the mattress. If you set the camera on the mattress with you it is even worse since your motions with the chica will get transferred to the camera and it is even more likely it will bounce out of aim after not that long a time even if you don't change the rough position of what you aimed it at. Again you can set the shot for close-up from further away on top of the tv (or somewhere similar) for just a while and go back and change it but that takes us back to problem 1 or you can leave the camera with a relatively boring static wide shot and limit your closeups to when you (or the chica) are handholding the camera but that brings back the problems of your other body movements (which I say is what you really should be focused on) transferring to the camera.
BTW, steadycam technology is designed to deal with NORMAL hand-jerkiness and not the type of jerkiness that occurs while the rest of you is busily engaged in banging a chica. That technology may HELP but it still has its limits.
You also want to look for the lowest lux camera you can get. With cheaper or older cameras with higher lux ratings, you'll get very dark and fuzzy shots (remember the old Paris Hilton home sex videos?) unless you illuminate the shit out of the room with extra lighting and lighting your room up that brightly reduces the intimate ambiance you normally want to have plus it can make the room a lot hotter. Newer cameras are much better in this regard but there will still be some tradeoff between illuminating your room for the best quality shots and setting the intimacy level the way you might otherwise want it.
Another thing to consider, and I'm saying this on the basis of my "professional" background as a porn prop, even if someone else is holding the camera, in order to get the best shots you have to be constantly aware of camera position and angles.
For example, at times you may want to go for a straight missionary with you lying atop the chica and banging away but that will block the camera view of her body which is what you really want to see. If you prop yourself up on your arms to provide a more unfettered view of her, you still have to be aware that your arms may be blocking the camera view of her breasts or other area of prime interest. The same thing applies to getting blowjobs when the natural tendency is to put your hand on her head, which can block your shot. You can twist your torso and hold the arm back on the side where the camera is shooting but then that makes what you're doing more uncomfortable, unnatural and thus less enjoyable.
Shooting yourself during doggy style is not any better. A straight POV shot looking straight down on her ass is straightforward enough, but if you want to get a side shot so you can see her swaying breasts that means you have to hold the camera out with your extended arm. That in turn means it is much harder to hold the shot steady while you're moving your hips busily back and forth (and maybe shuddering from impending orgasm) and you have to constantly glance over at the flip screen to make sure you're still aimed properly. I don't know about you but while I'm screwing I'd much rather look at the actual gal (and concentrate on what I'm doing) than focus at an image of her on a tiny screen. And if you want to take a penetration shot from behind, you don't really even have the option of looking in the flip screen unless you really twist your torso around and you're just as likely to wind up with a closeup shot of your own ass as a shot of your dick going into her pu*sy (or ass?).
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There are really 2 issues here. The first is what impact trying to video one's session has on the quality of the session itself and, secondly, the enjoyability of the end-product for later.
My first argument is to the extent you try to make the best end-product possible it will detract from the quality of the session itself, if not in terms of the chica's performance then in terms of your own because you're trying to do 2 different things at once and that always has some impact on one or the other. I have yet to hear anyone deny that self-videoing one on one sessions more often than not has some adverse impact on the overall quality of the session. All I've heard is that it MAY step up the chica's performance and that it gives you a product that you can enjoy LATER.
So let's look at the 2nd part of that. JOsie says that to him regular porn is not even on the same level and that we all have our own kinks. Jet says he is much happier perusing his much more extensive collection of still images. I happen to agree with Jet that for personal souvenirs, still photos serve just as well and are much simpler to take (you simply take a few shots and then you put the camera aside and focus on the real task at hand, maybe picking the camera up again at the end for some "after-shots").
Regular porn has a wider selection of attractive starlets and is much better composed and shot than anything most of us could ever produce. It doesn't have ME in it, but I don't normally focus that much on the props in porn anyway and it is not that difficult for me to imagine myself in the action, particularly since there are usually few face shots of the guys in porn. And it usually doesn't have the chica I've been with myself, but again so what? It has actresses I'd definitely WANT to be with and even sometimes ones who look very much like gals I've actually been with (or ones I know that I'd LIKE to be with) and so are easy to imagine being those gals. To me there is just no comparison between amateur porn I've taken myself and professionally produced porn.
But, even if there were some advantages to the former and there was some enjoyability of the end product, I don't think the hassles of producing it and the detraction to my actual sessions with the chicas would really be worth whatever small added enjoyment those videos would bring later. Perhaps it would be worth shooting a few for the novelty aspect at the beginning, but I'm willing to bet most of us would rarely look back at those videos when there are so many better and fresher ways of getting our rocks off. I don't even remember the last time I looked at any of mine, even the ones that WERE done professionally.
Naturally, YMMV and "we all have our own kinks" but this is just the way I see it.
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