Hi from Trinidad
 

Hi...been perusing the board for a couple weeks and was waiting until I had a question to post but couldn't contain it any longer. I'm so glad to have found this forum and have already learned alot from reading through the posts! Learned about the Glidecam from here (it arrived today), Mercalli stabilizing software, seen some amazing videos and websites, and more. I'll mostly be hanging out at the Under Water Over Land section since I'm begining on the road to become a nature videographer. Wish I had some more knowledge so that I could make a contribution to others' questions, but for now I've got a lot to learn and this seems to be the right place. :)

Caribbean
 

Welcome Helen. I am in Antigua, good to see others from the Caribbean, good luck on your undertakings. if youre ever in Antigua let me know Ill be glad to help with any of your projects.

Good luck

Thank you Gerry.

I went to T+T in 2005 and had the time of my life!

Helen,
welcome to the UWOL-community! You should also consider to join the UWOL-challenge: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=144 there is a sign-up thread right now, open until 31. October.
Anyway feel free to ask if you have questions, thats what this forums is all about.

I was hoping to put up a question about the best way to record nature scenes - meaning, whether to let the auto focus do the work or to manually fix the settings. (My registration didn't get approved in time for me to ask before a pre-arranged tour, but I did some reading in the meantime.) I used the auto focus mainly and some manual (rack) focus. Am using the Panasonic AG-DVC30 for the first time and viewing back the footage the scenes look really nice (wetlands area) although in some instances there are some overexposed backgrounds such as a very white sky which was overcast for the entire day although the foreground looks great. Thanks for the welcome. :)

Emre, did you make a film there?

No. I do photography when I travel since it is easier to edit and it allows me to be unobtrusive.