The Tellico River is located in the Cherokee National Forest near Tellico Plains, Tennessee. This was my first trip to the river and was mainly a scouting expedition to its headwaters in preparation for filming kayaking this spring. I had carefully planned and picked a sunny day when the temperature would be in the 50’s in order to avoid ice and snow while traveling through the mountains. When got there I was amazed to find the river access road iced over. Not wanting to waste the trip I parked and began my hike up river and discovered some inspiring winter scenes. If you play full screen you can see how the Panasonic HPX170 holds up in HD. I realize this camera is "old tech" but its not too bad.
Winter on the Tellico River on Vimeo

excellent work..I have been a professional still photographer for almost 40yrs, and I like to see strong compositions in video, which I don't see as much as I would like too...you have it.

Thanks John, I appreciate the comment. I came from an extensive landscape photography background and its nice to know some of those composition skills have carried over into my video work.

Another winner. What a treat it was to watch it this morning. Question, how much footage do you shot per minute of final product? Bob

Bob, glad you enjoyed it. I shot about 30 minutes for this 1.5 minute short. That was during 4 hours of hiking up river.

Nicely done; great compositions.

Nice music choice too; it sounds a bit similar to 'Brooks was here' from the Shawshank Redemption.

Thanks Simon, much appreciated.

Mark, thanks for the information. 30 minutes seems like a very good ratio. I really think you shoot, edit and compose some of the most soothing videos I have seem. Please keep posting videos. Be safe. Bob

Excellent video. I live in E. TN. Thank You for showing our mountain and river beauty !!! Very nicely done. You need to head on up to The Smoky Mtns. next time.

Thanks Bob and Tony. I have about exhausted filming/photographing opportunities in North Ga over 35 years so I am beginning to expand into other states. From what I have seen so far TN is a beautiful state and one I plan to visit again.

Be sure to visit Falls Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee, and get a cabin on the lake. You will love it. Bob

Thanks Bob, doing the research now.

Hi Mark,
Kudos on beautiful relaxing footage. I was admiring your work on Vimeo a few days ago and thinking that one day I may get to the same standard. As said above excellent compositions, I'm also from a photog background & recognize the skills. Also love the quality of the upload, I've struggled with that one. What bitrate settings are you using to upload to Vimeo Mark?
With kind regards,
Doug.
BaileyNatureGallery (http://www.BaileyNatureGallery.com)

Thanks Doug. I have struggled for a long time to get what I consider optimum video on Vimeo. Some may say this is overkill but after hundreds of encodes for the web this is what works best for me considering the short videos I do.

Export from Edius 5.5 as a lossless file and import intoTMPGE 4 Xpress. Encode in TMPGE with Windows Media 9 and these settings:
2 pass CBR video at 16000 kbs: picture quality 100: picture quality/performance bar on "other" tab all the way to the right.
2 pass CBR audio at 320 kbps 44khz stereo

Hi Mark,
Sincere thanks for the info. I'm using PP5.5 so the settings are bit different. But the 16,000kbs was noted, so I'm using that now & think it's making a difference.

We did a trip to the Smokies near the end of last year. Our goals was to shoot waterfalls & I contacted a photog who lives in TN who had a great article on the Smokies in Outdoor Photographer. He recommended Transylvania County, NC. Halfway between Franklin & Hendersonville if I recall. I'll be able to find his email if this is of interest, please pm me.

He says there are more waterfalls to shoot than we would be able to handle, so that could be a place for you to look at. We visited Cades Code in TN (way too many people) & made it to Franklin NC. Then had a Tropical Storm moving in so chickened out & went home.

Kind regards,
Doug.
BaileyNatureGallery (http://www.BaileyNatureGallery.com)

Doug, Mark. I have been there many times. It is by the town of Brevard, NC. Magnifacent country. One of the main scenic drives is from Brevard to the Blue Ridge Parkway,c it goes by many waterfalls. When you go remember to stop at the visitors center in town and get a map of all the waterfalls. One of the maps even gives GPS coordinants to each one. Besides hotels, there are lots of cabins in the woods for rent. Enjoy. Tennessee is a beautiful State. Bob

Thanks Bob and Doug. It is definitely on my list. Sounds like it would be best to plan a week visit up there. Right now I am finishing up editing Holcomb Creek Falls which is located in the Chattooga River area. Man that was a desolate area. Got to use my slider on that one. There is also a falls on the S.C. side of the Chattooga that really interests me called Long Falls Lee Falls (http://www.ncwaterfalls.com/lee_sc1.htm) which I hope to get to in the spring.
Also, am planning to get back soon to the Tellico River to do a kayaking vid which I am really excited about.