Father's Day gimbal practice

This cumbersome contraption is a DJI Ronin-SC gimbal. Its three motors compensate for any shakiness in my hands, keeping the camera steady. It's what I used to get those transition segments of my mother's studio. Portions of those closeups looked a little clunky to me, leading me to wonder if this gimbal was designed more for use outdoors. So last weekend, I took it along on one of my dad's photo expeditions to the Dixon Meadow Preserve. The three-minute video below compiles the best gimbal shots of the day.

And Happy Father's Day! This is the second short I've made that features my dad out in nature taking pictures. The other one was in Cape May. He knows a lot about photography and has been hugely helpful and supportive of my video pursuits. Thanks Dad!

More on gimbals
The two biggest challenges with gimbals are calibration and how you walk while you're using it.

Calibration is aligning the camera so that it's perfectly balanced on the device, taking the strain off the motors so they can function properly. It's tricky and gets frustrating. I've gotten pretty good at it, but that required a surprising amount of trial-and-error and YouTube consulting to figure out.

You can see how my walking is affecting the shots. When your entire body moves, the gimbal moves with it. To compenste requires a very balanced, even walk. Groucho Marx would have been a master gimbalist.