Why would you film yourself "hiking alone"?

Why would anyone want to film themselves while hiking? Must be vanity right? Or the millionth wannabe Craig Adams? Well the reasons are often much more diverse or much more simple.
I personally like to go out on short timelapse photography missions. A little bit of exploring, a bit of enjoying the mountains or the great outdoors. The photography mission is an extra reason to get me out the door. And if the conditions don't turn out to be right... Well I won't be coming home with an Insta banger, but with some time well spent in a place where most people will never go.
Dieter Van Holder
UIMLA International Mountain Leader
craig adams yens bastiaens Harmen Hoek

[@brianbodedelacruz8741]

This was pure outdoor poetry. Short and sweet. This went ahead and helped push me to do the same. These are the kinds of videos I aim to make soon. Poetic, passionate, yet simple. Subscribed!

[@RGriffer]

I've started doing mine with sharing to family as a secondary goal in mind. My personal primary goal in filming my backpacking trips is to create a memory that I can go back and revisit easily with the video quickly jogging my memory. Great short video!

[@DieterVanHolder]

Yes I totally agree!

[@HarryOsirian]

Dear Dieter, your footage is amazing. That background music is so beautiful

[@DieterVanHolder]

Thank you for your kind words!

[@HarryOsirian]

@@DieterVanHolder my pleasure

[@roybooth7904]

The question is worth raising. The genre in its purest form is silent hiking. Vanity is really when some fellow is yomping along with a selfie stick, and talking to camera all the time. The self-filming of a silent figure making slowly towards or upwards away from the camera gives viewers a better sense of sharing the experience. The paradoxical device often used is the camera drone, 'paradoxical' because it sees what the walker can't actually see. (One can even imagine Google one day eliminating the hiker, and racks of Google drones appearing in scenic locations for armchair sitting folk to direct from a set of options for flight.) The sharing of experience out in nature is a good gift to receive. I'm an older person myself, these days I might be defeated by a trek in high mountains, and what I know I certainly can't do is summon a mastery of the technology that is creating these films. It's something I always admire, the skill to set up shots, frame them, edit - and the patience behind all that effort. Another fanciful vision I have is proxy hikes for, say, people who are in hospital, where the hiker is hired to film and stream what the viewer wishes to see ("Go over to those wildflowers, please. That butterfly! Any butterfly - just try to film it! Just film those marmots! - etc.) Anyway, these are stray thoughts about a genre I love, and regard as a new art form.

[@eo-oa1610]

Nice bro. Pure

[@jimlondon]

Great short video.. beautiful scenery captured well. Thank you for taking the time to make it. I've been wanting to get a tripod for a while. What kind is yours? Is it a good model for carrying on hikes?

[@DieterVanHolder]

Hi Jim. It's the Peakdesign Travel Tripod and I'm pretty happy with it for this use. Mainly because it packs down really compact which means I can carry it along with bivy gear. I have the aluminium version and I've met people on the trail with the carbon version and to our great surprise you could barely feel the difference in weight. So I'd say it's a good tripod but I wouldn't bother shelling out extra cash for the carbon version.

[@socrates_s5871]

I've been hiking alone, taking pictures, and filming some videos, just for the record. I upload some of my photos to social media. People think I do this for attention too. I don't mind; it's hard to argue with others, especially if you want to convince anyone about your beliefs. The ones who care keep telling me to stop going out there alone because you never know what is going to happen. I wish you the best, and if you believe in any divine power, may it always be by your side.

[@DieterVanHolder]

I don't see anything wrong with telling a story as experienced from your own perspective and don't understand why showing yourself living something is wrong by default. Some people are too negative.

[@bovinero5015]

Absolutely true, Dieter. Keep on hiking and sharing. It is very inspiring. Thank you.

[@tweedyoutdoors]

Beautiful video. I'm always reminded of that famous "tears in rain" speech at the end of Blade Runner when this question comes up. There's also that very Japanese notion of "wabi-sabi" and the fleeting impermanence of things. I don't think there's anything new about the human desire to record our experiences in nature - it goes all the way back to cave art. So I don't think we should beat ourselves up about whether it's vain or not. On TH-cam nobody is forced to watch anything - it's very easy to click away if you want!

[@greg_nicholls]

This was awesome man. I film myself and never felt it was about ME, rather, I could be anyone and maybe someone will see it and walk in my footprints - so to speak

[@DieterVanHolder]

Well said!

[@violinmaker4271]

Where is that?!!

[@DieterVanHolder]

The Belledonne range in France.

[@RagtimeBillyPeaches]

Seems obvious to me... You're alone so who can photo you but yourself.

[@manfrommaine]

I still see no need for anyone to film themselves in such a situation. That's the stuff of Instagram thots. The shots of nature were amazing, seeing another human in it lessens the quality.

[@MohammedBoudaka]

ik ben een jongen in je school de broer van Dania ik vind je vid leuk

[@ericUtr]

simple. earning money through youtube ;)

[@DieterVanHolder]

Good luck with that 😅

[@romanpetak3775]

Yoga pants shots is current culture of modern women. Please, Do not Do same

[@DieterVanHolder]

Skills required to make it online: a bubble b*tt 😜