Nicole Eddy is a popular blogger, YouTuber and Instagrammer. I've followed Nicole's work for some time and not only does she create great content, she is an incredibly inspirational human being. Nicole often posts about topics that are important to her and she inspires thousands of people around the world.
I recently asked Nicole a few questions about her work and life. See what Nicole had to say below.
Hey Nicole, Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m born & bred in Cape Town, South Africa currently exploring the world as much as I can and documenting my journey across YouTube, Instagram & my blog. Being born near the beach resulted in me learning how to surf as a young girl instilling a passion for most outdoor action sports such as surfing, recently falling in love with snowboarding & anything else that gets the adrenaline pumping.
Starting with YouTube, how long have you been creating video content?
It all started in 2014 where I began dabbling in writing on a blog for a university media project. Reigniting my love of writing back into my life, I started my own blog for fun and begun to write about my local adventures around South Africa & surroundings whenever I got the chance to go explore.
At the time my boyfriend, Ben Brown, had just started to do daily vlogs on YouTube and I really couldn’t get my head around the concept. It wasn’t until the end of 2015 when I uploaded my first travel video online & haven’t looked back since.
What is it about creating vlogs that you love so much?
For me, I love sharing my journey of this crazy thing called life with my audience. It almost feels like you’re sharing your travels with an old friend & travel companion. The community of travel ‘content creators’ for lack of a better term, is also an awesome one to be involved in & I have met so many incredible & like-minded humans.
Lastly, being able to have fun filming, editing & sharing my travels with an interested audience means that I am living a dream life. When your work constantly feels like play at the age of 25, I think that’s when you know that you’re doing something right.
What advice do you have for other creatives wanting to start out on YouTube?
Just start. Today. I wish that I would have started this whole journey sooner and uploaded content earlier. No matter at what point you start, you’ll be wishing that you had started earlier so you might as well start today.
And then, consistency & quality. I can definitely take a lesson from my own book when it comes to this, but I know that when I have committed to having consistency in the past, it certainly helps your content gain traction as opposed to your audience not knowing when you’re going to upload.
I absolutely love the photos you take and share on Instagram, how did you learn to take such great photos?
Thank you. It was mainly through trial & error working my way through the settings on my camera. Both my dad & bother are in the film industry so I’ve been surrounded by conversations about light, composition & settings for a long time (whether or not I ever listened is another story, haha).
Ben has been a mentor for me as he has a great eye for photography & is a talented editor, so learning through him & taking on his advice has helped a lot. I am by no means near professional, so I still have a long road of learning ahead of me.
Who are some of your biggest photography inspirations?
I’d say Ben is definitely an inspiration, especially as we often shoot together & seeing the way that he captures the same thing as I did in such a unique way is always incredible to see.
A few of my other inspirations are power duo Matthew & Renee Hahnel, Garrett King and Chris Burkard...obviously.
You’ve visited some amazing places around the world, what does travelling mean to you?
I think that I’m in love with the idea of exploring places that have been long explored by those before us, I’m always imagining what places must have been like 50, 100 years ago, whether it’s in the streets of London or the streets of Cape Town as told by my grandparents. Our recent Cape Town to Kenya expedition had me constantly thinking about how it must have been for David Livingstone back in the day, and for some reason exploring new places with old tales in mind really excites me. So...history has a big meaning for me when I travel :)
What have you learnt from travelling?
I guess ultimately I’ve learnt more about the humans that occupy this world, different cultures, ways of living, traditions and at the same time, while you learn how different we all are, you learn how connected we are as the human race and how similar we are.
I love your sense of adventure, you always seem to be doing something rather than just relaxing on a beach, whats the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done?
Yeah, I’m not much good at lying on a beach tanning. I think one of the most adventurous things that I’ve done is drive in our Land Rover Defender, Pumba, from Cape Town to Kenya and back over the space of 3 months.
What’s the most surreal moment you’ve had while travelling?
There are two that stand out. The first is in Alberta, Canada when I saw proper snow for the first time ever. We were driving down this most incredible highway near to Banff, the sky was blue, the sun was out and the snow-covered Rocky Mountains towered above us. That still gives me goosebumps when I think about it!
The second was in the Maldives. Coming from Cape Town, I had never experienced tropical warm water in my life. I remember looking down into the water from the boat as I was about to jump in for my first ever warm-water surf, all the colourful fish were swimming below in the most ridiculous bluest of blue water that I had ever seen. I definitely shed a tear or two.
I was reading your blog post about your time in Cederberg, celebrating New Years Eve quietly under some shooting stars sounds perfect, but what has been your favourite travel memory?
I think one of the surreal moments described above would stand out as a favourite travel memory.
When you’re not creating content for brands, YouTube, Instagram and your blog, what does the perfect time off look like for you?
Catching up with some me-time & spending time in the water are my top two priorities to get my head thinking clear again. The problem is, every-time that I do something fun like a weekend away, I want to document it & share it. Not much of a problem in hindsight!
In life what is most important to you?
Leaving a positive impact on the Earth, those around me & my audience. Inspiring people to be more adventurous & spend more time outdoors is important to me. I honestly believe that spending time immersed in nature is such a stress reliever & really helps to ground & focus us as humans.
Not to get all philosophical on you, but at the end of the day, we are a part of Nature, we are without a doubt connected to it, and with this big city life hustle & bustle where we are scrounging the barrel for any free time away from work, and when we get it, we prioritize catching up with a TV series instead of spending time outside, must surely play a part in contributing to a negative psychological well-being. So encouraging others to be more involved, aware and custodians of our environment is important to me :)
And finally, what are your plans for the upcoming year?
Great question. I don’t have many solid plans in place, but you can certainly expect a snowboarding trip sometime soon as well as another tropical surf trip sometime next year :) 2018 is going to be awesome hear!
Thanks Nicole for speaking to TravelFoodFilm
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All photos in this post belong to Nicole.
Did you miss day 14? Catch Up here - Gab Scanu
5 comments
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ReplyDeleteWat een boeiend interview met Nicole Eddy op de "Interview Advent Day 15"! Het is echt geweldig om meer te weten te komen over haar reis en ervaringen. Overigens, als je ooit op zoek bent naar een betrouwbare partner voor het maken van betaalbare websites, kan ik je zeker aanraden om eens te kijken naar [bedrijfsnaam]. Goedkope website laten maken Ze leveren uitstekend werk en hebben een team dat echt luistert naar jouw wensen. Ik heb zelf fantastische resultaten behaald met hun diensten. Bedankt voor het delen van dit inspirerende gesprek!
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