Russellville Downtown
Garden Sass
Old Bank
Beck's
Learning To Create Product Videos
Recently 3 Russellville Downtown Businesses Stepped in to help our team learn new skills. Here's what happened
Learning the Art of Product Videos: A Downtown Collaboration
When it comes to creating quality product videos, the learning never really stops—especially when you’re working with new equipment. Recently, we got our hands on a probe lens, and before using it in any professional setting (where the results really matter), we knew we needed some serious practice. Lucky for us, three incredible downtown businesses stepped up to help us out.
Beck's Bridal Boutique: The Photography Studio
Morgan Beck, Owner of Beck's Bridal Boutique, offered us the use of her photography studio for an afternoon. This space was exactly what we needed to stretch our creative muscles and figure out how to make this new lens work for us. Having access to a professional studio made a world of difference, allowing us to focus on technique rather than scrambling to set up an impromptu shoot.
Heavily recommend her for photography needs… she also is one of the few retailers licensed to carry Arkansas Razorback Merch and one of the top sport photographers in the state!
Garden Sass & Old Bank: Lending a Hand (and Some Merch)
To make things even better, Leslie from Garden Sass and Jason from Old Bank both contributed their own products for us to test out. We shot some of Garden Sass’s unique merchandise and captured a few shots of Old Bank’s famous Jackalope fries dish (if you haven’t tried it, you need to). The whole downtown collaboration was a lesson in how much can be accomplished when local businesses come together.
The Ups and Downs of Learning New Gear
Like any experiment, not everything went according to plan. As anyone who works in photography or videography knows, things always go wrong before they go right. One of our biggest challenges with the probe lens was shaky footage. Since the lens is so long, even the smallest movement gets amplified. And because it’s a manual-focus lens, I had to adjust the focus ring by hand. Here’s the thing—I learned the hard way that my hands aren’t as steady as I thought they were.
Every time I adjusted the focus, I introduced a slight shake to the rig. With this lens, even minor shakes were glaringly obvious. On top of that, we had a full-blown tripod disaster—midway through our shoot, the whole setup came crashing down. (Yes, we have a picture of that moment for proof.) Luckily, the lens survived the fall, but it was a clear reminder of how critical stability is when working with such a specialized piece of gear.
For future shoots, we’ll definitely be using a focus motor control to stabilize everything and avoid those micro-shakes (and, hopefully, avoid another tripod catastrophe).
What Went Right: Photography Wins
On the photography side, things were smoother. Since there’s no movement in still images, it’s easier to isolate and eliminate any shake. We managed to capture some great photos of Old Bank’s Jackalope fries and a few awesome shots of Garden Sass merchandise. It’s moments like these where you can really appreciate how important it is to test new gear in a low-stakes environment.
A Shoutout to Our Downtown Partners
We couldn’t have done any of this without the help of these three businesses. Morgan at Beck's for her studio space, Leslie at Garden Sass, and Jason at Old Bank for their products—they all made this experiment possible. It’s this kind of neighborly support that allows all of us to improve and grow.
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