NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1028906
OCTOBER 2018 • NEBRASKAland 49 is probably going to last longer than that. So we did some research to find the best external battery option for the GoPro Hero 4 models that we use (other models would require a different external battery). We settled on an external battery made by Re-Fuel that replaces the backing of the waterproof case and latches and seals to maintain the waterproof nature of the case. It gives us about eight extra hours of film time, depending on how cold it is, and allows us to film all day long. This whole operation depends on battery life. Because you're powering cameras, remotes and a phone, as well as keeping a charge on other external batteries, I have one more tip we use all the time. DeWalt makes a USB charging adapter that slides on to all DeWalt drill batteries. The adapter has two USB ports that allows for the charging of two devices at the same time. As long as you charge your drill batteries before the hunt, you can slide on the adapter and plug in the USB end of all your charging cords to create a mobile charging station that allows you to keep filming as long you're willing to brave the freezing temps. Storage When filming, there's a lot of extra footage and "false alarms" that eat up storage space. Make sure you have an extra SD card for each camera you're using. And it's always a good idea to dump all your footage onto your computer to free up space on the SD card before the next hunt. Unfortunately, we have jobs that cut into our hunting and filming careers. Hiring cameramen and buying expensive cameras don't quite fit into our budgets. We don't know how to use high tech video editing programs, not that we have any, and we're unlikely to land a weekly slot on the Outdoor Network anytime soon. I'm lucky if I get more than a handful of "likes" on an Instagram post. But our GoPro system is good enough for us and that's who our videos are for anyway. They capture our finest moments and our worst shooting. We get to enjoy them together and give each other a hard time. They help us critique our concealment and our decoy spreads. Sometimes we get to show them off to friends and they get us fired up when we're missing freezing temperatures and strong north winds. But most importantly, they preserve the time that we get to spend together in the blind. Try sticking a couple of GoPros in the mud this fall, your buddies will get a kick out of it. If nothing else, it might help prove to your wives that, "Yes, we were actually hunting that long!" ■ Jake Jadlowski is a high school history teacher from Ralston. This is his first feature for NEBRASKAland Magazine. A GoPro Hero 4 Black captures guns firing into a flock of late season mallards in Sarpy County. PHOTOS BY JAKE JADLOWSKI