🌲 giovanni 🏕️
 

My Gear

Let’s talk about gear for a minute.

Every brand, influencer, and YouTuber is forever hyping the latest gadget, selling you the miracle cure for creativity.

  • “This new camera will change your game.”

  • “This lens is all you need to go pro.”

  • “This AI-powered app will make your edits go viral.”

It’s a steady stampede of marketing noise. After 20 plus years of shooting, editing, and delivering in just about every corner you can imagine, I can tell you the truth: it’s not about the gear. Never was.

You can have the newest specs on earth, but if your story is dull, your shots are lifeless, and your edit plods along like a three legged mule, nobody’s going to care. Gear might hand you sharper pixels, but only story gives you staying power. The gear is a hammer. The story’s the house.

Since 2015, I’ve shot most of my work on iPhones, action cams, and gear that half the YouTube crowd would laugh off the table. I’ve filmed national campaigns, travel shoots, and music projects on devices that ride around in my pocket. I still use accessories so old some interns weren’t born when I bought them. They work. They’re reliable. And here’s the kicker: not once in my career has a client asked me what camera I used. They only ask if the final cut makes people feel something.

Same goes for my editing setup. For years, I cut everything on a 12.9 inch iPad Pro. Lean. Mobile. A scrappy little rig that went everywhere I did. But the shine wore off. Cracks showed. Literally. I’ve broken more iPad screens than I’d like to admit. When you need an $80 armored case just to survive daily use, the “minimal” pitch goes up in smoke. This last crack was the final straw.

So I moved on.

Now my main workstation is a 24 inch Apple M4 iMac with 24GB RAM and a 512GB SSD, paired with a 4TB Samsung T9 SSD for media. Clean. Fast. Quiet. No dongles, no clutter, no overheating. It just works, and I don’t waste time fighting the tools. That’s worth more than any shiny benchmark number.

Here’s a quick PSA if you’re filming on iPhones: they overheat. Especially in summer. Especially in Texas. Carry a second phone with the exact same specs. This isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s survival. You’ll kill your shoot without it.

Here’s what two decades in the trenches taught me: quit trying to buy your way into better work. Put your money into things that actually raise the quality, lights, stabilization, clean audio, or a trip that sharpens your eye for story. Skip the camera upgrade. Go hike into a canyon. Shoot something real. Limitations force creativity, and creative muscle is the only gear you can’t buy.

Take the money you were about to blow on a new lens and put it into a three day shoot somewhere that fires you up. Bring one camera, one lens, or just your phone. You’ll learn more from that trip than a hundred unboxing videos.

These days, everything in my kit has a job. If it doesn’t serve the story or make my workflow smoother, it’s gone. My lights shape mood. My mounts give me angles worth taking. My truck is a 28 year old Toyota 4Runner that hauls gear, gets me where I need to be, and doubles as a basecamp. My setup’s stripped to the essentials, and that’s the way I like it.

Because when the dust settles, it’s not about the fanciest rig. It’s about using what you’ve got to tell a story that sticks. That’s the only measure that counts.

Generative Ai

AI WRITING & STRATEGY TOOLS

AI isn’t a magic eight ball. It’s a loud-mouthed ranch hand that’ll talk your ear off if you don’t keep it in line. I use tools like Answer the Public, ChatGPT, Grammarly, Grok, Kruse.ai, Memories.ai, and Originality.ai: not to write for me, but to sharpen the blade. They help me see where the story breaks, where the rhythm drags, where I’m chasing my own tail. They’re good at kicking up dust, but the trail you ride is still your own.

AI PHOTOS

There’s no romance in a pixel unless you put it there. I run my stills through Enhancor.ai, Hailou, Hedra, HeyGen, Higgsfield, KlingAI, and MidJourney. They clean, expand, or reimagine images when I need something a phone can’t quite catch. But here’s the truth: it will still be a while before AI is able to replace the patience of waiting for the right light. These apps just help me stretch a frame a little wider, sdd elements that weren’t there in the moment and keep my client work on brand. The heart of the photo still comes from being there, not dragging a slider...for now.

AI VIDEO

Video is where AI feels like the wild west - lawless, fast, and sometimes downright strange. I work with Eleven Labs, Flow AI, Freepik, Hailou, HeyGen, Higgsfield, LumaLabs, MidJourney, RunwayML, Seed Dance, and Sora. Some handle voices, some bend images into motion, some polish the scraps into something new. They’re handy campfire companions, but you better keep your own instincts sharp. No algorithm knows how to tell a story that sticks with a human heart. That’s still your job.

POST SCHEDULING & ANALYTICS

The least glamorous part of content is keeping the trains running on time. I lean on Brand24, Buffer, Squarespace, Zapier, and Zoho Social to keep track of what’s out there, what’s coming, and whether anyone’s paying attention. They’re like a half-decent bookkeeper. Keep them in the back office and check their numbers, but don’t let them tell you how to run the ranch.

The Yellow Rig is made possible by:

ATOTO Car Stereos, Atturo Tires, Blue Ridge Overland Gear, Bodega Coolers, Devos Outdoor, Discount Tire, Fittipaldi Wheels, Maaco Auto Body, onX Offroad, Pelican Cases, RAM Mounts, Renogy, Rotopax, and Topo Designs.

My Content Creation Toolkit:

For the final touch, I either create music and sfx myself, or source music and sound effects from platforms like Audiio.com, Birocratic.com, Lens Distortions, Moods Sound Design, suno.ai, and Tropic Colour to breathe life into my content.

*Updated 08/30/2025