Teach others about video. Take a few moments and let your 16 year old niece check out your camcorder. Then let her shoot some video. If the video she shoots is cool, give her credit as guest cameraperson on the edited tape. Here's one of my favorites for travel video.
Most points of interest have a sign or monument.
I like to frame a wide angle shot that include the sign in a corner of the video. Then I zoom all the way into the sign. I roll for about 5 seconds, then slowly zoom out and pan. It takes some practice to get it fluid, but once you master the technique you can use it over and over. Lighting, Lighting, Lighting The better the lighting of your original footage, the better the digital video will look.