The Art of Capturing the Moment

In third grade, Video Star was my favorite app on my iPad Mini. It was a way for my friends and me to star in our own music videos while putting on comical filters. My friend Morgan and I even started "The Dancers Academy," and at every sleepover we'd choreograph a routine, rope a parent into filming us, and I already knew exactly how I wanted the shot to look. That instinct carried into iMovie in middle school, and then, in 6th grade, I got a GoPro for Christmas. That small camera fueled a passion that's deeply rooted in me to this day.

I brought my GoPro everywhere. Every trip, Saugatuck, Martha'a Vineyard, Greece, followed the same process: record, download, organize. Then, once I was home, I'd spend hours in GoPro Quik listening to hundreds of songs before landing on the right one, then syncing every clip to the beats and drops. I found so much joy in reliving the moment, and even more in showing the finished video to the people who were there.

From my sophomore year of high school on, I kept building. I got a Canon DSLR, taught myself Final Cut Pro, and started making montages for my tennis team and memory videos for friends heading off to college. But the biggest shift came when I fell in love with YouTube. I started paying close attention to how my favorite creators edited, how they shared their lives, and I realized I wanted that. A forever space to relive my greatest memories. So in January of 2025, before my second semester of junior year in college, I started my own channel before going to Rome to study abroad. Seeing it with a banner, a profile picture, and a bio made it all feel real, like I was one step closer to achieving something I'd always wanted.

I fell in love with the process of filmmaking there. I shot on my iPhone, a DJI Osmo Pocket 3, and my old GoPro. Same process as always: record, download, organize, but this time the videos felt genuinely professional. I learned the ins and outs of my new Pocket 3, bought an external SSD to speed up the editing process, honed my skills on Final Cut Pro, and found licensed sound software to avoid copyright issues. Studying abroad was the most exciting period of my life and also the most chaotic, but I captured all of it. The feelings, the meals, the people, the moments I knew I'd never want to forget. My first video had the longest learning curve, and with each one after that I got a little better. Video editing is so complex, and I still have so much to learn, but that process is part of what keeps me coming back.

Now, as a senior at the University of Miami approaching graduation, I can't help but be sentimental. The video producer in me knew I would be, and I have been keeping my cameras close all year, filming bits and pieces as the year goes on. Not only do I capture the moment, but I remember things I wouldn't otherwise. Life moves fast, senior year especially, and I've had the privilege of being behind the camera for so much of it, excited to one day clip it all together and look back. It's gotten to a point where my friends love when I pull out my camera, happy to be part of the moment on film. Being able to share that joy with the people I love will continue to fuel this passion for a long time.

People say live in the moment, and I agree. But why wouldn't you want to hold onto that moment forever? I've found a way to stay present while still capturing the best parts of my life. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video needs no words at all.