Blue Heron Wetlands

[Doug Jensen]

I shot this footage last weekend and graded/edited it yesterday. I call this place the "Sewer Refuge" because it is a 300 acre water treatment facility in Titusville, Florida. The juvenile Great Horned owl is technically outside the perimeter, but still within about 200 yards, so he made the cut. I've got so much great 4k footage of this owl from the time he hatched last January to the time he was learning to fly in late March that I could do a documentary about him someday. :-) It is good to see he made it through the summer in good health and that his parents are still alive too. Sorry about the watermarks, but I have to have some protection from theft.

Blue Heron Wetlands stock footage in 4K on Vimeo

[Michael Warren]

That was wonderful,as usual for you. I hope all your hard work is rewarded with sales. I imagine stock footage is a difficult field now days.

On the technical side, can I ask about your slow motion shots.
1/ What frame rate did you shoot at?
2/ What shutter speed did you use?
3/ Did you do extra slowing in post?

As for watermarks, I'm surprised anyone complains about them. We are, after all getting to see your work for free and it's only fair you should do what you can to protect it.

And you do need more than just a web site watermark. I had some of my footage stolen off YouTube by 2 TV stations, even with my web site watermark on it. I only knew it had happened because a third station called me to ask me to offer similar shots to them next time. At least one of the 3 commercial stations in my area is honest, and guess who will be the only one I'll contact next time.

[Doug Jensen]

Stock footage sales continue to grow a little every month and it is now bringing in a pretty decent income that will be a cornerstone of my retirement plan in a few years. Plus it is a lot of fun and gives me an excuse to get out and shoot.

1) This footage was shot at a base frame-rate of 24P. All slow-motion was captured at 120 fps.

2A) For the slow-motion shots, the shutter speed varied between 1/250 and 1/120. My preference is to use 1/250 when shooting at 120 fps, but sometimes there wasn't enough light to allow it.

2B) For the non-slow-motion footage I used a shutter speed of 1/60. A lot of people use 1/48 or 180 degrees for 24P but I find that is too slow and results in excessive motion blur. I always shoot 24P at 1/60 and 30P at 1/80.

3) No, I never slow things down in post. I might speed something up on occasion, but I never slow things down. That would result in the computer creating rendered frames out of thin air that were never shot, and I don't think that looks as good.

You should hire a lawyer and go after those stations who stole your footage. Seriously, do it.

[Michael Warren]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

You should hire a lawyer and go after those stations who stole your footage. Seriously, do it.

My footage was stolen by the news departments. I occasionally need to work with these stations on the advertising side and decided to let it slide in the interests of keeping friendly relations, although I did express my displeasure and pointed out that they had also broken YouTube's terms of use.

One news director took it well, apologised and sent me a copy of the article they used it in. The other news director was very arrogant, told me I shouldn't have put it online if I didn't want it used and seemed to think that it was okay because they hadn't blurred out my watermark.

I came away from my phone call with him wanting to go down the legal path, but decided against it. In Australia, damages are generally not as high as in the US. It would have cost me time and anguish for what would have ended up gaining me a few hundred dollars. These are only small stations.

[Michael Warren]

And thanks for the slow-mo info.

[Bob Safay]

Doug, great footage. Your slow motion shots are beautiful. My favorite is the shots of the owl. I will be at Merritt Island NWR from 6-10 December. Hope I get some good shots of birds. I will also rundown to the Blue Heron Wetlands and see if I can find that owl. Maybe I'll run into you down there. Take care and safe travels. Bob

[Doug Jensen]

Hi Bob,

Send me a PM when you are in the area and maybe I'll be able to meet you someplace. I'm always looking for an excuse to go out and shoot if I have the time. Hopefully there will be more birds by then, because there is barely any activity right now out on Merritt Island. I'm on the road right now and I'm hoping the weather is a little cooler for the birds when I get back next week.

[Bob Safay]

That would be great! Bob

[Doug Jensen]

I had the good fortune to meet up with Bob and his wife last Friday morning at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida for some shooting at sunrise. It was nice to meet them both in person and my only regret is that I didn't have time to spend the entire day with them on their adventure. Although it was overcast and there were very few birds around, I still got a few "keepers" and I'm sure Bob got some good footage as well.

A Quiet Morning on Merritt Island, Florida on Vimeo

[Bryce Comer]

Beautiful stuff Doug,
For a quiet morning, you certainly made some lovely images!!

[Bob Safay]

Doug, beautiful footage. I sure had fun videoing with you. Here some of the clips I shot. I look at your clips and think, WOW, Doug and I were side by side and look what he got. Again, great to finally meet you. I cant believe I missed that Bald Eagle

Merritt Island NWR on Vimeo

. Bob

[Mark Williams]

Doug, Bob nice work. Great variety of birds.

[Doug Jensen]

Bob, you got some very nice footage as well. It is interesting to see the same birds -- but from a slightly different perspective. I wish I'd seen the kingfisher and the spoonbillswhile I was with you, they seem to be very rare this year. I've got a SpaceX rocket launch to shoot tomorrow (if they don't postpone again) so maybe I'll swing by and look for birds on the way out. You never know what's going to be out there.