The shots people forget on a fall trip

The Best Footage Isn't the Part You Went For

When customers ask our editors if there's anything they could do better when shooting their next scenic trip, our answers are the same.

We see most people coming home with the highlights. The overlook. The famous barn. The long shot of epic landscape that stopped everyone in the car.

What's usually missing is everything around them, which is what actually makes a video work.

Our editors can only build with what exists, and the connective tissue is almost always the gap.

In no particular order, here's what people forget to shoot and we suggest you add to the shot list for your next vacation:

🚗 The leaving
Loading the car, coffee at the gas station, the first mile. Beginnings give a video somewhere to start, and nobody films them because the trip hasn't started yet.

🚶‍♂️ The in-between
Driving, walking, waiting for someone to catch up. These feel like nothing at the time and they're what makes a finished video feel like a trip rather than a slideshow.

👀 People not looking at the camera
Someone reading a map, zipping a jacket, laughing at something off to the side. Ten seconds of that beats twenty posed shots.

🌧️ The weather being bad
Rain on the windshield, wind, the morning it was too cold to want to get out. Bad weather is memorable and almost nobody films it.

🌇 The end of the day
Everyone tired in the car, the last light, the drive home. Endings are the hardest thing to edit around when they don't exist, and they're the shots people most regret not having.