Getting 6X More Battery Life with the GoPro Hero 5 Black

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So I recently purchased the GoPro Hero 5 and by now, there's probably over a hundred reviews on the camera itself so I won't get into that. 

Everything seems to be as advertised and works great, but I do have one complaint, battery life. Consumers expect action cameras to be smaller but able to do more. Compact size means a smaller battery and that in turn results in poor battery life. The simple answer would be to buy more batteries, but that's not an answer at this moment because GoPro has not officially released additional batteries for sale yet, so I have to find an alternative solution.

Through my combing of Amazon, I came across this, the "Vidpro PG-6 6000mAh Battery Hand Grip Monopod for Compact Digital Cameras, Camcorders, GoPro/Action, and Smartphones". Long story short, it's a camera grip with a built in 6000mAh battery in the handle. Battery life problem solved.

The Vidpro grip has a USB output connector to plug in whatever mobile device you want. The reason why I chose this particular grip over other battery grips was because it provides the biggest built in battery and it has a built in 1/4"-20 screw. This is particularly important to me because it means that I can use this handle for things other than a GoPro. The 1/4"-20 screw means that I can easily attach a cell phone mount (which it comes with) or a GoPro mount (which it also comes with).  The other handles that I've found is made first with the GoPro in mind and you must adapt other connectors to attach something like a cell phone. This just makes things more cumbersome as the mounts get taller. Even though I believe this to be the case, the VidPro grip does come with enough attachments to let you do this.

At the base of the grip is a female 1/4"-20 tripod screw socket. This means that you can further mount this grip to other accessories as you please. For less than $30, you can't really beat this package. It comes with everything needed to attach your camera and increases the GoPro's battery life by almost 6 times.

If you're interested in buying the VidPro battery grip, here is the link to the item itself. You may also find the link to a shorter USB cable useful.

Vidpro PG-6 6000mAh Battery Hand Grip Monopod for Compact Digital Cameras, Camcorders, GoPro/Action, and Smartphones

http://amzn.to/2eC16PD

USB Type C Cable,CableCreation Short 0.5ft Braided Type C (USB-C) to USB A Cable for the New Macbook 12-inch, Nexus 5X/6P & More,15CM Gray [56K Ohm Resistance] 

http://amzn.to/2eqmknq

Flying Above the Big Four Ice Caves

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Another day, another spontaneous hike for Hai.

In preparation for my road trip across the western US states, I've been going on more and more hikes. I'm taking it slow and doing all the smaller hikes first, but believe me, I'm working on it. 

On this particular adventure, I decided to hit up the Big Four Ice Caves. In my opinion, this is the easiest "hike" in the area. Proportionally, for the amount of work that you put in, the payload is so much greater. 

The hike is 2.2 miles roundtrip. Within the 1.1 miles of hiking, you get to see some truly amazing scenery. Depending on the time of year, the actual Ice Caves may or may not be the highlight of your trip. Surprisingly, on this particular trip the caves themselves were barely melted. From my past experience, the caves were melted enough for people to easily walk through them.

Unfortunately, my microphone stopped picking up audio midway through the trip. I hope you enjoy the videos below. The first video is my vlog of the trip and second is strictly of the drone footage. 

Subscribe to my youtube channel for more videos to come!

Hiking to Talapus Lake

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As I was scrolling through Instagram one night, I came across a of photo of some friends standing on some logs floating in water. I thought that this was pretty interesting and decided to look the location up. As it turns out, Talapus Lake was quite close to home. 

The first year of law school ended last Thursday. I originally planned on doing a somewhat indefinite trip across the western US states but this did not go as planned. The trip is pushed back until personal matters are settled. In the mean time, I have Washington to keep me entertained. 

I hope you enjoy the videos. The first video is of the vlog and drone footage that I filmed while hiking. The second video is strictly of drone footage from the day.