“Document more”

I’ve heard this phrase being thrown around a lot by people with more experience than me even before I started creating content online. As someone who loves travel more than anything (food included), I started making my own travel videos as a means of documenting my travels. However, I didn’t have any idea what kind of travel video I wanted to make.

At that time, I thought that a travel video has to be fast-paced with lots of complex shooting techniques for it to be enjoyed by my viewers but to be honest, that concept wasn’t appealing to me.

A travel video that is calming to watch

A couple of years later, I started posting photos and a few short clips from my travels on Instagram. It wasn’t until I saw the rise of the “Aesthetic Vlog” genre on Youtube and Tiktok that I finally found a video format that spoke to me. 

To me, this genre is mainly about storytelling through a slow-paced, mood-driven style. I am inspired by creators who make videos that are filmed in a silent, beautiful– “aesthetic” way, drawing you in with storytelling through the written word, rather than talking to their cameras.

I was intrigued and attempted to apply some of these concepts to my own travel video as I could relate to her being an introvert who wants to tell her story without having to speak directly to the camera. That was when I started making my first short-form "Aesthetic Travel Video” on Tiktok back in early 2020.

Over time, I gained a wider audience, which was a surprise as I didn’t expect that many people enjoy watching this style of travel videos. From then on, I was convinced that there are people who enjoy content like this and it encouraged me to keep documenting my travels. I even started my Youtube channel, where I upload longer versions of my “Aesthetic Travel Videos”.

Capturing spontaneous moments

In my opinion, one key element in producing an aesthetic travel video is by simplifying the image that is being shown but still having a powerful narrative behind it. I’ll only add handheld camera movement when needed but most of the time, I’ll keep it to a minimum.

When showing a place that I travelled to, it would be all too static if I showed the landscape or the architecture of a building without any context at all. That’s why I love to include spontaneous moments that are happening right at the moment. From a family of three that was holding hands on an upwards-riding escalator to a couple riding on bicycles going down to the pier, these authentic moments don’t only add more scale to my travel video but also make it more relatable to the viewer as they will feel as if they are right there, travelling and watching these scenes unfold in real-time.

Once a moment has passed, the chances of it happening again are little to none. Capturing it requires me to always be aware of my surroundings and not get weighed down by the gear that I use. As I shoot most of my shots handheld, I need my gear to be lightweight and easy to carry around. That’s why the Alpha 7C really suits my needs, being the lightest compact full-frame camera in the world.

I shot the featured video above when I was exploring the city with my Alpha 7C and Compact G prime lenses. With the Alpha 7C’s autofocus (AF) capabilities and Real-time Tracking, I was able to apply focus racking effects to certain scenes for storytelling purposes. By slowing down my AF transition speed, I could apply natural rack focus by tapping on the Alpha 7C’s tiltable LCD screen. The ease of being able to touch focus on the Alpha 7C ensures that every moment is captured in focus.

Putting it all together

Although authentic, unstaged moments add most of the narrative to my travel video and make it relaxing to watch, there are two other elements that are just as important – audio and colour.

Finding the right music that builds atmosphere takes just as much effort as shooting the video itself. For my short-form content on Tiktok, I have a collection of music that I’ve saved while scrolling my timeline. Some of them are original tracks from an acoustic cover artist that I love. On Youtube, I use a paid service for royalty-free music and over there, I do the same thing of building my music collection beforehand. Depending on the scene, I also tend to add ambient sounds to make the video more lively and sometimes dreamy.

Colour-wise, I usually set the picture profile on the Alpha 7C to S-Log2 to get a wide range of dynamic ranges. I choose the S-Log2 over the S-Log3 because it’s easier to tune it to my preferred tone when colour grading. I love a bright and colourful tone that is not too overly saturated and the improved colour science on the Alpha 7C combined with the S-Log2 profile picture gives me just the right amount of dynamic range and natural-looking colour as a good base for my colour grading.

At the end of the day, I believe that “Aesthetic Travel Videos” are about telling a visual story that not only makes the viewer dream about travelling to the places featured in the video but also puts them in a feel-good, relaxed mood.