How to take epic phone footage while you’re travelling

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what about a video?
Now that we all have smartphones with excellent camera capabilities, it’s easy to take videos on the go for lasting memories of a holiday – whether you’re making a TikTok or just compiling clips for the family.
There’s no need for fancy camera equipment.
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Professional travel photographer and videographer Nick Rains, uses his iPhone 15 Pro Max to capture footage along with his professional gear, and shared some of his advice with 9Travel.
Nick, who has travelled all over the world for the last 40 years, says that the iPhone can capture incredibly high-quality footage especially when compared to how convenient it is.
“It’s robust enough to always be in my pocket, and so ready to quickly record things that I might miss using a more complex camera.”
Here are his top tips for creating cinema-worthy content with your phone. 
A rookie error is to record videos that are too short. Anything under 10 seconds is hard to edit later. If something interesting is happening, let it happen and keep rolling. Pixels are free!
Turn on the Grid and Level in your camera settings, which will help you keep the video level.
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Video looks best when something is moving; usually, this is the subject of your video.
But if nothing is moving (you’re taking a video of a beach, or mountains, for example), you can move the camera from side to side by leaning one way and then the other way as you record to make a subtle sliding movement.
This works really well if there is something close to the camera too.
If you decide to do a camera pan from side to side, there are three things you should remember.
Firstly, wait three seconds before starting the pan, and then wait three seconds after finishing the pan. This gives you space on either side for editing.
Secondly, slow right down – fast pans are hard to watch.
Lastly, try to end your video with something more interesting than at the start – this is called the ‘reveal’.
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For the best quality zoom results, use the preset zoom settings on your camera, rather than the in-between settings.
On iPhones, these presets are 0.5x 1.2x and 5x (and 3x on iPhone 15 Pro).
Variety is key when it comes to creating a video that is interesting the whole way through.
When filming, make sure you vary the types of videos you record so you have a range of close-ups, general shots and some wide establishing shots. It’s a lot easier to make a compelling video edit if you have a mix of clips to work with.