UWOL #2: "Nature Study as Recreation" by Rick Phillips
 

Well, as usual, this was hurriedly put together. Good thing (or not) was that there was so much going on that I had more wildlife footage than I knew what to do with, including a ton that didn't make it into the film. The idea was to show the diversity of wildlife to be seen in a realtively small geographical area. I'm too much of a biologist and not enough of an artist, so I'm really going to have to step it up on the creative editing side. But this sure is fun, and I'm picking up more ideas as I watch your entries for each challenge. Thanks for checking in.

"Nature Study as Recreation" : http://www.uwolchallenge.com/challen..._rapnature.mpg

You certainly seem to have the pool of talent on tape for it. I saw a nice variety. I think your future montages will be wonderful once you have some more time too. It's tough like in my case when you have a day and night job, lol. Great video though!

Some spectacular videography, but, as with others in this contest, did you address the theme ?

Great shots with some nice variety and some wonderful species in this one. Nice choice of audio. I'm jealous of the quanity of subject matter for sure!

Think about levels of detail, change your focal length and explore your subjects more. I'd have liked half the subjects with twice the detail :) A couple of shots could have done with more contrast/depth.

Tenuously linked but hey if you want to shoot wildlife this was always going to be the case ;)

Great stuff...you shoot well.

I lived near you for 5 years before moving out here to WA, and I really miss the wildlife there, so your footage brought back happy memories.

I'm not sure if it was my computer or the video, but it came to a very abrupt end. A slower transition might be better. You have some really wonderful shots. I would prefer to see it put together in more of a story format somehow, but that might involve removing some footage, and with so much good material, that editing would be hard. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Ruth

Hey, Duck footage!!!! lol. My last film was full of ducks, but they did not show up as nice as yours! Your birds are nice looking. Good job focusing. I liked the rest too. But as Chris said, did you address the theme? I found it a hard theme to work with. Until I got this random idea that I did.

Nice stuff and best of luck to future projects!
~Gabriel

Rick,

Great collection of wildlife footage.

You had a little glitch when the bluebird dissolves to the duck.

I don't think I see that much wildlife around here in a year let alone in a three week period. Nice choice of music. it went well with the subjects.

I think we're all learning from the UWOL entries and I look forward to your UWOL#3 entry!

Rick,

Very nice, some awesome footage. You are on my top four short list!!!

Great job.

Very nice footage of birds. I guess it's your kind of recreation, watching birds?
I think the music fit the pictures in your video. That violin was very relaxing and gave the video an extra touch. I also think the color was good.
Nice done, Rick.

Your choice of music fits the video perfect. And you have some very nice shots in your video.

To me it seemed like you did not use any transitions (or a very short fade to black) between the title and the first clip, and the same at the very end.
I would have preferred a longer transition here. (maybe a second or two)

Thanks for all the comments. Yes, I had some real editing issues. I think I went about this all wrong. I went out and tried to film a great variety of wildlife and then tried to decide how to turn it into a story. Should do it the other way around. I really meant to narrate it myself to help with the idea of nature study (helps to know something about the subjects), but I need a decent microphone. I tried it with the camera mic and it sounded like crap. As far as fitting the theme of "recreation", nature observation or study really is a form of recreation. I spent 16 hours on Saturday split between helping release tagged Spotted Salamanders, looking for rare Four-Toed Salamanders nests, and then driving back 40 miles to meet up with some guys from the North American Native Fish Association (a whole organization devoted to the hobby and recreation of studying and keeping native North American fish) on the N. Fork Holston River at Yuma, Va. This is just recreation to me. I just didn't tell a story very well with it. Keep on learning and try it again next time!

Rick

Rick, those birdfootage was gorgeous, as a birdwatcher myself you got some species I haven't seen before. Would have been nice if you could have done some narrating explaining the different species names etc.

Second what others have commented to the video.