My vacation this year corresponded to UWOL 9. I had planned a trip to North Dakota to film Sharp-tailed Grouse and Western Grebe doing mating displays, and other birds. I was pleased to see Meryem's choice of theme. It was late in the season for the grouse, but just about right for the grebes. Despite the weather I was able to get a few quiet sunny mornings.
I have wanted to see Western Grebes doing this dance of theirs since they first appeared in an "Adventureland" episode on the old "Wonderful World of Disney" TV show back in the mid 1950's. I couldn't understand how their chins got so round, while their beaks pointed in the air, like their heads were on backwards. It took 50 years, but now I see. They just seem to be puffed out.
Sharp-tailed Grouse are one of the prairie's "chickens" that set up dancing areas called leks (that's a Norwegian word, isn't it?) each year for courtship purposes. This bird's dance is different from the more sedate booming and puffing of the Prairie Chickens, and it is thought that certain dances of native american tribes featuring circling with arms outstretched may have been modelled after it.
For bird photography, the number of species in the Dakotas can't compare to Texas or Arizona, but their visibility is superb, the singing is unmatched anywhere, once you get there, you practically have the whole state to yourself, and the bratwurst is unbeatable.
To see the video in a larger format, go here:

http://www.vimeo.com/1213325

Steve,

A fantastic piece of video!!!!! It is definitely in my top 4 list !!!!!! Terrific opening and closing shots. I lived the closing shot, a beautiful composition!!!! After seeing this one I should pull mine out of the list!!!!! truly awesome.

What a great vacation and a wide variety of bird and other wildlife. It was nice to see the mountain bluebird male/female coloration. Much different than our eastern bluebird. I'm sure none of these great shots fell in your lap. Very nice work.

Hi Steve:

The Grebe dance on water was amazing as was the Grouse. I don't think you could capture Prairie life in 3 minutes better than this. Very well done and impressive. Excellent narrating and informative. Rock solid camera work and great footage. Not to mention a perfect title for your piece. Awesome.

Cat

Wow Steve, I really liked your video. Kept coming up with new surprises, just when I thought you were about to get stuck. Kept my interest peaked. Really great closing shot of the wagon contraption. Said prairie all over itself.

A nice subject Steve, I liked it a lot. Good sound and nice shot of the bird. I don’t know if its you compressing or if it’s the way you plant it, but I get a feeing of 8mm film, it’s a bit “jumpy” almost like you don’t got enough frames/sec. I like you film, for me it’s one of the best this round, good subject, good VO, story and pictures, well done Steve.

Steve, that was a very nice entry! The Grebe dance was stunning to watch! You have very good compositions in your film. This is one of the top entries in this round.
Keep up your good work!

Hi Steve.

Great visuals which obviously come from a well planned trip. It looks like you reaped the rewards here.

You captured a great range of species which is exactly what this theme asked for.

Well done mate.

Okay, this was fantastic. Steve, what was this shot with ? Camera, lens, fps, etc.?

Steve, this was great. I learned something about birds in on the prairie that's for sure. Good narration and shot selection too.

As a child I always wondered if I could just move my feet fast enough I could walk on water, your footage of the Grebe proved this to be true.


Nice work!

Hi Steve,
Just watched the vimeo version, and waht amazes me, looking back on it, is that it's only three minutes long. It felt much longer - simply on the fact that you managed to fit so much in and tell good stories without making it feel rushed. That's talent.
Particularly loved ..... what the heck, I loved the whole thing. Spot on, man!!!

Thanks, everyone, for all the encouraging comments. I really do appreciate them.

Marcus, the "jumpiness" you noticed was probably in the grouse dancing sequence. It was shot, and edited at 30 fps. These birds began their dancing in March, and this late in the season were pretty much worn out. They would go for a few steps, stop, and go for a few steps more. I edited out the stopped time to simulate what these dances look like when the birds are truly active, and that lead to small discontinuities.

Chris, I shot this with a Canon XLH1 (hi def) with a 300mm zoom atop a really heavy Gitzo tripod and Bogen 516 head. Part of the grouse sequence was shot from a blind next to the lek, part from my car, about 30 meters away. For the tight close-ups I add a 2x Tamron teleextender, which gives an amazingly sharp image if the bird is really still, permitting careful focusing.

What a memory you brought back. I read in your post about the Wonderful World of Disney and the clip of the Western Grebes doing their dance on the water and thought, “No way!” But then, there it was! Great to see them dancing again.

The Mountain Blue Bird shots took my breath away. Here it is Idaho’s state bird, yet I’ve only seen one in all my years, and that was from a distance. Thank you so much for giving me such a close look at this beautiful little bird and all the other prairie bells.

Another wonderful video from you Steve. You have a neat, well-constructed story supported exceptionally well by your footage and sounds of the different bird calls. I found it interesting and informative - we’re learning so much about the wildlife living in other parts of the world this round.
One of my long-time ambitions has been to video the Great Crested Grebe swimming about with a chick on its back - now I have an added ambition - to get footage like this of their displays. I have lovely footage of the pair displaying just before mating but none of them “walking on water” as you have so beautifully shown us. This video is another one at the top this round.

Dear Steve:

Thank you so very much, my friend, for this amazing entry. Like I have explained in a few other entries, the agenda is to crank through and comment on all the films. Then after, I (and my husband) have the privilege to soak up and bask in a handful of films that simply overwhelmed me in their beauty and execution. You are on my shortlist... this is beautiful work. I am humbled by your cinematography and content. It is simply a joy and an inspiration to watch and indulge in, again.

Bless you,

Cat

Hi Steve,

Congratulations on a wonderful entry!

I enjoyed this entry throughout, in particular;

- the start with the singing bird on the fence post as the title appeared - just beautiful.
- the narration flowed beautifully with the various scenes - which you captured nicely with a good selection of wide establishing type shots, followed by some nice close ups.
- you also were very smooth with some of the action shots. Lovely to watch and admire.
- the wonderful variety of scenes you captured - with al of them supporting your story nicely.

The ending with the wagon wheels and the out of focus birds flying by was just perfect.

The quality of the footage was a bit soft. Whether this is a compression issue, I don't know however, with such a wonderfully pieced together entry - this was not too much of an issue for me.

Steve all in all a very nice entry and certainly one of my favorites.

Well Steve...I've got to say this was one well done video.
Beginning, middle and end....all there. Nice.

And I learned a few things, that's for sure.

Excellent shots, I loved the Blue bird close up. And I never new what a Bob-O-link looked like, thanks for that.

The closing shot...wow! Well, no need to repeat what everyone else said.

So many good videos this challenge...I'm going to have to step up my game next time.

Bob

What a great film Steve. I think you have some of the best sequences in this film we have seen since the start of UWOL !! This was a great little film covering some fantastic behaviour and with many levels of detail which I hark on about every round to people and this is such a good example of how to do it right. Different types of shot, different types of angle and different speeds all allow you to step into the moment with your chosen species.....fab and very pro indeed!!! The standard of the shooting was also very high indeed.

I would now be saying this is the winner of everything I've seen....BUT two things let this down somewhat. Firstly the compression in the video and secondly the VO only came out of one speaker and wasn't recorded in great quality. Don't get me wrong the VO was really well delievered, as were the visuals but viewing of the film was descreased because of these production issue.

That said I still feel this is a very strong entry and if you don't get in the top 3 I'll eat my tripod!

Oh out of interest, what camera were you shooting on Steve?

Edit: I don't watch the higher res versions of peoples films until after I've commented so it's all level playing field. But now I've had I think I'll watch the vimeo version for an extra treat :-)

Steve,

Wow.

Great intro, with the bird singing - and the grouse dance was fantastic, he could out-dance me any day. And I've never actually seen a bluebird outside of a Disney movie, and whaddya know, he looks just like a European robin spray-painted blue!

The grebe's mating rituals were something special, and very well captured - excellent!

The whole film flows really well, and as well as excellent bird footage you also managed to capture their sounds well, and that makes all the difference. The closing shot was just perfect, and the music fitted well.

Tiny, tiny complaint about the voiceover, it seemed to come out of my right speaker only and could be a bit hard to hear at times, but that is minor stuff.

Really well done.

Hey Matt and Mike;
Eek! I didn't realize. I record the voice over in stereo, but the only cable I have to put it into my computer is a mono cable. It only comes out of my right speaker too, but I didn't think that was a problem. I guess it is. I'll buy a new cable PDQ. Thanks. The sound quality on my computer is very good, however. Can't explain why you should have trouble hearing it. Was the Vimeo version also difficult to hear?

Mat, I'm using a Canon XL H1 with a 70-300mm zoom. I agree with you. Compression is a real problem. Any time you take a 20 GB movie down to 60MB there has to be issues, especially if lots of effects have been put into the film. I know that we have it set up this way to level the playing field for people who have dial-up connections, etc. But with recent new codecs that provide huge quality with tiny files (like DivX, and it's free download Dr. DivX) might it not be possible to let everyone have Sorenson Squeeze looking movies?

Hey Steve,

The sound does seem slightly better on Vimeo. Now that I think about it, the levels are probably fine, it's just that one ear is getting a mix of ambient sound/music and the other is getting just the ambient sound/music - so the non-voiceover tracks seem to "win".

It's a minor issue - it doesn't detract from a fantastic video.

That was really enjoyable Steve. The courtship dance, walking on water. Amazing.

Oliver

Steve,
Nice opening scene the silhouetted bird singing a short burst of his song, I guess you used a orange filter to get that orange glow effect .
Now I can see where the American Indians got one of their dances from, the Sharp Tailed Grouse
I like the shallow depth of field showing just the Mountain blue bird and his mate,
the Grebe courtship sequence was magic I have seen it a few times but had the cam with me.
The closing shot shallow depth of field with the flock of birds flying past with the old plough in the foreground, again was this done with a filter or an overlay?
Nice short.

Hi Steve
Another top notch entry from you
stunning visuals well thought out documented and produced

Hi Ron,
No, there was no filter on that sunrise shot. It was an extremely foggy morning. They view is about 30-45 degrees from the rising sun. My camcorder is set to shoot a bit warm, but no filter.
The last scene was an overlay of three subjects, a sunset, the plow, and string of shorebirds flying over a lake.

Steve, that was stunning!
I think this is one of your best videos so far!
Everything was great, the framing, the VO, the music...
It was fun to see those 2 birds running on the water near the end of your video.

Thank you for sharing, and teaching me something new.
Keep up your good work.