Well, here is my VIMEO version (http://www.vimeo.com/1201989). I am not happy with the compressed version and know now that I need to learn compressions and web video techniques. I spent more time fiddling with the necessary download parameters then I did filming and editing.

So, the story behind this story:

I am a middle school science teacher, and just as this UWOL challenge was coming up, I was winding down with school. My days were actually very crazy but I was promising myself that I was doing this, no matter what. I was compelled to find a story and try to tell it in the 3 minute format. Being spring, I was attempting to capture babies, but I have having no luck. We have a wetland that gets red wing and yellow head black birds in right now. I couldn't think of a story but I really wanted to film them.

On my first day off from school, I decided that I would go to the Northern California coast. I live in Southern Oregon, the Cali coast is the closest accessible shore due to the mountains. So I packed the dogs and the gear, figuring I would get a few minutes but seal lions or maybe baby birds.

When I rolled up on the bay in Crescent City I found that the winds were blowing from onshore, totally at a 180 degrees from usual. When I drove out to the farthest point I was surprised to see two osprey diving on the flat waters. It is never like that here. Our ocean is a turbulent mess, but that wind knocked it down. So I grabbed everything but the sun screen and ran up the hill, over the point, and got on the last spit of land that I could overlooking the kelp beds they were hunting. Five hours later and the worst sun burn I have ever had, I was able to get the footage I needed. I may have increased my risk of skin cancer but I wasn't about to miss the shot.

Enjoy!


http://www.vimeo.com/1201989

http://www.uwolchallenge.com/challenge9/19_UC9_seahawk.mov

Martin... I thought your video was wonderful. I was rivetted to the screen while the osprey was trying to get that fish... that was very dramatic. Great stuff.

Andrew

Martin,

Great work. My favorite part was the Osprey struggling to get airborne after catching the fish. You might get better output from vimeo if you deinterlace the video. I use windows media encoder 9 (free) at 5000kbps, constant bitrate, 2-pass, smoothness 1000, complexity "auto" and get pretty good results after vimeo re-encodes it upon upload.

Wow Martin, nice footage of the Osprey in the water. I've never seen such activity. Must have been exciting as all getout to capture. Hair raising I think.

Look into de-interlacing. If I'm not mistaken your footage looks to be interlaced, which is where those horizontal lines are coming from.

Great job with the narration too. I wish you weren't so far north. Maybe we'd bump into each other on the coast. I'm easy to spot - usually falling over something.

Thank you folks! Super thanks for the compression and video info. There is so much for me to learn, almost all of it has been trial and error and listening in and asking questions. Deinterlacing is something that just came to be for me and I am glad that I got that info from you guys! I think I will output that again using all that info and get it back onto VIMEO. This challenge has ended up being a HUGE education for me with video output. It is something that I haven't really thought about, learned about, or worried about. Yet I have always whined about how my end result was never what I wanted it to be, the reason being that I am retarded about output. If there was one thing that I would take a lesson on, read a book about, or would love to be mentored in it would be video output and that whole world of compression and transcoding. Thanks so much folks!

I would love to say this to everyone, since I found this place I have been nothing but pleased with the community and the support that is here. I am on many boards for various reasons, this being one of the best just for the community and support aspect. I am still trying to wade through all the info available here...Search function is my friend.

So I just watched my UWOL version and I wanted to throw it out there that the video look on there is not being all 1970's or psychedelic. That seems to have been the bad compression that I did. For whatever reason it just never came out right. For a cleaner version, though not deinterlaced, please see my VIMEO link in the first post of this thread.


I hope the judges don't think I was being "creative" with the way that thing looks.

Martin,
It looks to me like the field order is reversed.

Martin,

some nice footage, to bad you missed the stoop!! that is hard stuff to get!!!

the vimeo version is much better but it still has some issues. For birds i prefer to shoot in progressive as apposed to interlaced. The person may be right about your field order. Try it both ways and see if one is better!!

Good point about energy gained in relation to energy expended!!! it all about survival!!!

thanks for sharing, I always enjoy raptors of all sorts!!!

I don't know that I can change that on a GL2. There doesn't appear to be anything in the manual or in the menus when I run through them. When you say shoot in progreessive I am assuming that you mean you have a camera setting for that. I will have to look into this and investigate.

Thank you!

Hi Martin,

Well you were certainly in the right place at the right time! I was riveted.

Unfortunately, the play back didn't work too well at all however, it really goes to show when you've got the story, you can get away with these sort of technical issues. I notice your very good at locking onto your targets also. I find following birds flying is certainly something that needs to be practiced.

The osprey trying to get out of the water after that catch was just amazing. I though its feathers would get water logged and we were going to see the poor thing drown! Then you explained they tend to go for the larger targets less often - as if you were reading my mind, and then coming up with the explanation. Great education piece and I can say that I think we all would exchange some sun burn to capture this sort of material.

Great entry...

Well I enjoyed this one very much, I was feeling sorry for the Osprey when he was stuck in the kelp. I agree de-interlacing would help in this case, but the footage was still quite watchable.

Thanks for sharing this Martin.

Nice one! That’s a cool bird. Well done! You did a good job getting the bird in the frame and you hade some good info, I especially liked that about the wind.
Nice job!

The wind was a blessing and a curse all at the same time. Due to the wind switch, it allowed the osprey to hunt in an area not regularly hunted with ease. The problem: that wind was whipping me everywhere. When the osprey dives, I was trying so hard to follow but couldn't stay with it. Once in the water, those movement left and right are me bucking the wind trying to stay on the shot. That wind was throwing me everywhere. It was all I could do to stand there and keep the camera from being blown off the spit and dropped 100 feet to its doom.

Oprey is one of my favorite raptor! Think you did very well on this one. Some shake and vibration in the footage here and there, but you gave me a good view of this stunning bird. Nice that you got the scene with the unsuccessfull catch!

Thank for sharing this!

Martin,

check the field order in your software when you render out, (not sure what NLE you are using) there is usually a drop down menu to choose.

Have the new deinterlaced video up now. Check it out here. (http://www.vimeo.com/1234502)

http://www.vimeo.com/1234502

mmm, very nice Martin...

I have never seen an osprey struggle to get airborne for so long after a catch! That must have been a large fish or it became snagged in the kelp. Either way it made for one of the most dramatic pieces of footage I have seen in an uwol film!

This was an ambitious film with a challenging subject so congratulations for taking it on and doing so well. I would suggest that when filming the bird over head you zoom out slightly so it is easier to keep the whole bird in frame the whole time. You can then pull the image in slightly in post production.

The music and commentary were great.

Since you are a science teacher I thought you might find the following paper on ospreys interesting. It a neat little study into how they use species specific successful hunt data to determine where the best fishing grounds are located.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v329/n6136/pdf/329239a0.pdf

If you would like the full article I can access it for you. Just send me an email.

Greta film I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Pete

Hi Martin:

Wow, that was amazing footage. I am deeply impressed with how well you could follow the Osprey in flight so smoothly with it so zoomed in. You along with Per have amazing skill at that! Your science school-teaching comes into play here with well researched, interesting and informative information. Great job.

The first entry I made in UWOL I had the same compression questions. Here I came up with a fun movie and then getting it to 50-60 mb killed it! I threw out questions to everyone as well and people recommended the software package Sorensen Squeeze. If you can spring for the cost, it is very well worth it. It made all the difference in the world to be able to have very high compression and still have it look crisp. It also allows for you to tweak your settings (not a black box kind of thing) which helps to get those movie clips under the requirement. Just a thought!

Well done Martin!

Cat

I have committed to a lot of new stuff. I want to leave the teaching thing to become a wildlife videographer. I want to live the true meaning of Under Water Over Land. I am working on buying a dive housing for my GL2, and hope to upgrade to a hd camera or something with better abilities in sd. Probably try to go XL2 or XH way. Sorenson is now on the purchase order, it is just a matter of swinging it. Being a teacher wanting to turn my business from what it was into something bigger, and potentially riskier, is not monetarily supported by my teaching pay.

Thanks so much for the great words! This was my first entry, and to be honest, the direction I want to go in life. I hope this serves as the first of many more to come!

Great footage Martin. Sometimes we think of nature as this mechanical thing, where everything happens in a particular way. The struggle for the meal you captured here reminds us that there is no "sure thing" and that even with all the special gear the osprey is provided, it is still a struggle.

I think the same can be said of wildlife videographers-- depite the gear and equipment, it is a struggle to get the shot-- and you came through on this one.

My heart was in my throat during the struggle between Osprey and fish. Wow—I’ve never seen anything like it. Thank you for capturing and sharing such dramatic video, Martin.

If there was one thing that I would take a lesson on, read a book about, or would love to be mentored in it would be video output and that whole world of compression and transcoding.


Try this for starters - a little outdated but has the fundamentals.

http://www.adobe.com/products/premie...rimer_0306.pdf.

The link doesn't seem to work. It tells me the page is no longer available. Thank you though. I will see what I can find on adobe's site.

That is a real pity - it is pretty comprehensive even if a tad behind technology that is moving so fast these days. I will send you a copy if you don't have any success - really worth it.

Your video on the Osprey is both interesting and informative. I admire the way you managed to stay with the bird in flight. I think I would have cut out the untidy footage between the start of the dive and the Osprey’s landing in the water. (The brain usually sorts out these in-between bits.)

Watch your horizon lines - those in your intro were not quite level. (You can always straighten them up in post if all else fails!)

Martin,

Well done - what a great film.

The establishing shots worked well, though a couple of the opening ones had non-level sea on the horizon that looks a bit odd. Also, the voiceover, while very well delivered, was a bit overwhelmed by the music sometimes.

But wow! there are some good shots of the Osprey there. I particularly like the ones where the bird is hovering in mid air, and you've got a great close-up.

Ospreys are very rare in the UK and Ireland. The BBC's Springwatch season this year spent some time with an osprey nest (http://www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch/meettheanimals/osprey.shtml). I always thought of them as inland water birds rater than sea birds, you learn something new every day.

It must be painfully difficult to capture the Osprey diving for the fish. The BBC show mentioned above showed Simon King using an ultra high speed camera to capture the osprey dive. I'm not sure if web surfers from outside the UK can see the videos on that site, but if you follow my link in the last paragraph you can see the 28 second version of the dive - incredible! But he probably had $100,000 of camera and tripod there.

Back to your film! The struggle for the fish was incredible. Very well done, a great entry.

Martin,

Nice entry.
I watched the .mov version because I have them on disc and am watching them at work.
So I did have some pixalation issues, but I still enjoyed it.

Your VO was very good and I learned quite a bit about your Osprey.

And the shots of it hovering were outstanding.

Bob

Martin,

Those were some great shots and nice VO. Did you do your own music for the background?

Oliver

I did do the music. I took loops from a loops CD I have for ACID and put it altogether. This was only the second time I have done such a thing, the first was on Garage Band. That was about three years ago. I really didn't so too much other then find the loops I liked and put them in the order I wanted.

Hi Martin, and welcome to UWOL!

What is it about the osprey? The most fascinating bird on the planet. All the world loves the osprey (except maybe the fishes...) You got some excellent footage of this most magnificent animal.

Most people have to study up on compression for their first few entries, to get the settings right, so you're not alone.

Well, the compression education is going to continue in "crash" mode. UWOL inspired me enough that I have decided to start an online video series the is called "Our Natural World." I am going to run it through VIMEO and my website, and am going to do a weekly 5 minute video about,well, our natural world. I am retooling and starting with the osprey video, and I just finished the VO for the second episode, and the third one is filmed. I am going to bust my but to do this every week over the summer! Who knows, maybe even beyond!

Hi Martin.

I had to search for your video a bit. Named "seahawk" as file and "The Osprey" in the feedbacktread. Some nice clips you've got there. Maybe not so lucky with the compression but still some very uniqe clips from the diving hawk :)
In your next film, take your time to make title and ending text for the film :) Your VO is informative and you are a storyteller. I like the guitarpicking tune, but maybe you could lower the sound a bit as it would be easier to hear your VO. Also would have liked some background sound from the field. Wish you all the best and good luck.

Geir Inge

Thanks for the advise. The lack of credits was intentional and a personal preference. I wanted the feel of this being a segment to something bigger and not just a stand alone 3 minutes. As it turns out, that is now going to be the case, and in my retooling of this I will have an intro and credits. The music will also be brought down. The lack of background sound is due to the fact that the wind was about 40 mph that day and it was blowing my mikes out. I don't have a good enough wind screen yet to cut down that sort of wind.

Hello, Martin. I, too, enjoyed this short glimpse into a day in the life of a hungry osprey.

The shots showing the bird hovering were awesome, very graceful. The de-interlaced vimeo version showed much improvement over the UWOL version.

Yeah, I am not happy about the fact that the compression was the one major hang up. It really bugs me to think that it could have been that one thing that would make the difference in my standings. I think I may try to to see if I can put together a compression tutorial for newbies. I had major issue with that whole thing and I would love to see someone else not have to go through all of that.

Thanks so much for the great words Bruce.

Well, UWOL has inspired me to reach for something bigger. So here is to something bigger for me.

I have just launched "Our Natural World", a weekly UWOL style series based on the whatever part of the natural world I can get myself into. I retooled my Osprey video (making another screw up in it along the way-figures) and launched it as episode 1 and just got episode 2 posted up. Both can be seen on my website, www.galaxysailor.com (http://galaxysailor.com/video-samples/our-natural-world/), or on my VIMEO page which is Galaxy Sailor. I have episode three filmed and will have it up by next monday with any hopes, and have started to film episode 4. Here is to a new one every week!

http://galaxysailor.com/video-samples/our-natural-world/

Hi Martin,

That was a very cool and interesting video you made!
The compression problems has been commented already, but I am sure you will get a much better quality once you get the Squeeze.
It's very easy to learn and use.

I look forward to see more of your videos. Stay with us for the future challenges!

Yep, I ate it on the compression, but that is now alleviated. Sorenson Squeeze is now my friend. It does make a difference, as I have replace most of my videos on my website after deinterlacing them and then running them through the Squeeze. You can check out my videos for my new series Our Natural World here (http://www.vimeo.com/user410636/videos) and here (galaxysailor.com).