Madrona Marsh: Torrance, California on Vimeo

The Madrona Marsh isn't too far from my house and is unique, because it's one of the few marshes in our area that's in a major city.

The video was shot with the HMC40 and edited with Final Cut Express.


Bob Diaz

I enjoyed the scenes in this video. But I do not understand why there is no corresponding sound track with scene sounds? Audio is a big component of video; the sounds of nature add a lot to scenes like this; good video cameras have good sound capabilties. I see (and hear) this a lot: a music track replaces actual sounds.

What's going on? Defective camera audio? Too difficult?

The reason the audio was not there was it was total garbage. The problem was the fact that the marsh has 2 major streets with heavy traffic on one side and 2 minor streets with less traffic. The Madrona Marsh is in the middle of a big city and is one of the few marshes in our area like that.

In recording the video I was careful to put the angle so that the street was not visible in most shots. However, the traffic noise was very loud and couldn't be masked.

IF the marsh had been in a remote location without all the noise, I would have included the audio from the marsh.


Bob Diaz

Nice stuff Bob!

Did you use any ND filters? The reason I'm asking is because I just shot at a state park this past weekend with one of my HMC40's, and had to use a .6 ND filter and shoot at f/11 just to keep it at the point that the sky wasn't blown out.

I really need to break down any purchase ND filters.

In this video, I just used a higher shutter speed, 1/500 of a second to get the lower F-Stops. The biggest danger with the higher shutter speeds is that the video can take on a strobe like effect with fast motion.


Bob Diaz

The Tiffen ones I got at B&H are working well for me, and came in around the $15-$20 mark.