Marvellous, Steve. I mean I found it exciting and informative to observe. Once more I will be happy to steal some of your phrases and powers of description. I think I'll even try practising your method of delivery ... steady, measured, even-pitched, NEVER cool, NEVER know-all, ALWAYS sounding as if you're calmly delighted to be learning as you speak ...

.... and I was wondering what to do with my puffin, gannet, fulmar, razorbill & guillemot footage; to hear you explain WHY the fulmar's beak is so-shaped was exactly what I needed to learn; the word "precarious" would just not come to me when trying to describe where the cliffbirds hang on ... ... and what a good ad for Exposure Room!

Thank you, many times.

Hi Steve- It looks like you had a very productive trip. An oceanographer friend told me he’s been to the Pribilofs twelve times and never seen the sun. I’m sure glad you did! Very nice shots and great editing. What a heroic job of follow focus with the fulmar! Great murre shots. Where did you find a place to stand, or were you hanging on the cliff like they were? I really liked the interaction shots with the auklets. Great close up of the jaeger too. Were you shooting with a fast shutter? Seems like there was some wing snap on some shots- like the dovekies. It’s not bad though and might just be the compression. I can’t wait for the next round. Nice bobcat. I’ve been trying to shoot one all year for another project but you know how darned elusive they can be!

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the comments. For the most part there was room for a tripod at the cliff face, but for some shots, like the close-up of the cormorant, I had to lie on my stomach and dangle over the edge. I guess I'll never get rid of the wing snap. Everyone complains about it and several UWOLers have suggested cures. The problem is that it seems to originate from too fast a shutter speed. Unfortunately, as Per Johan explained in his thread, you cannot shoot a smaller aperture than f/11 with this camera, so a high shutter is necessary to avoid overexposure. I have put a good quality (Hoya) ND 4 or 8 filter on but I think it significantly degrades the image.

Than bobcat was really weird. After taking the shot you see in the clip, the cat began walking toward me on the road, stayed on the road, walked right past, no more than ten feet away, and kept on going. Could it have been rabid? Who knows.

Brendan,
Thanks for the compliments. You're going to make me need to buy a new hat.

Steve,

You have many fine shots. I am impressed over how you manage to follow the flying birds.
Your narrating is very good, but I would prefer to hear your voice a bit louder and in the middle (from both channels).

Thank you Finn-Erik,

I thought I had solved that two channel problem.

Hi Steve:

You amaze me. I am always captivated by your filming. This is stunning and your narration keeps it very interesting. I am so impressed. My only comment, and it's personal preference only, is that I would have liked to have seen some cuts to wide view of the scenery as a relief from the intense close ups. That is it! You are a very talented wildlife documentarian.

All the best,

Cat

Steve,

You have a great story and some fine footage. A few of the shots you have the heads chopped. the one where you have a chopped image and the immediately after it you have a head shot of its red face that is perfect. I'd skip the first shot.

I liked the voice over alot!!

Must have been a great trip. See any peales peregrines? Puffins are a primary food source for them!!

Hi Dale,
I have to blame Exposure room for the cut off heads. The uploaded footage was not that way. I didn't see any raptors on the island at all, except for one Pomarine Jaeger.
I'm not familiar with Peale's Peregrine, but I suppose the Island could support a pair or two.
The highest point on St. Paul is a large rise that would be accessible to mammals (ie Arctic Fox). There may not be suitable nesting sites for a falcon there.

Steve

A really well produced piece of work. It flowed nicely from sequence to sequence, it set up the story well and there were some interesting facts and nice narrated observations. - There are a few shots I would cut/edit due to shake/exposure or length but on the whole the photography was great and had a good mix of shots. - On the whole I thought the narration was well written and delivered, you have a nice tone and flow. Occasionally though it fell into more of a childs doc with some of the observations/quips, not that much and not that often but I did feel it a couple of times - I can point these out if you'd like.

A well produced, very watchable piece that I think will a bit more cutting/production value would stand up to broadcast! - One thing though fella, how does it fit into your previous sections....or have you changed direction? (sorry if I've missed something in your postings on this)

Steve,
an amazing piece you show us here. Second what others commenting already.

This bird cliff reminds me very much about Runde, the southern most bird cliff in Norway. Very much the same species there too.

Looking very much forward to your next installment about camoflace.

Hi Steve.

Well we got similar locations in this contest, I think.
Different approaches though, and that's not so bad :)
I think you cover more species than I and also some species not seen at Runde island.
The puffins for instance. I've got one kind of puffins, you've got 3 and they are just wonderful to watch. The flight at sea, I think it's The Little Auk, or Dovekie (Alle alle). It's awesome. May I ask how you got such a smooth and fine shot? Because I guess it's in a boat out on the open sea?
One more question, about filming in rough sea. What do you use to protect your camera from the salty sea water? I think this is quite a problem at times. Even when it's almost calm, there's always some salt sea water in the air.
Ok, that's all for now.

All the best.
Geir Inge

Hi Geir,
I agree with you. Shooting from a boat, even in calm seas, is almost impossible. I never do it, partly because, like you, I am afraid of salt damage to the equipment. These shots were made on a tripod at the edge of the nesting cliff. The birds fly by all day quite close in, and at elevations that make it look like you are close to the water.

Steve...

This was a very watchable film - both from an interest perepctive and a leanring one as well. I watched it several times... first from a filming perspective... and felt the images were well captured, crisp and nice.

The editing was instrictive. It felt as if there never was an edit, just a flowing story. This film is one I will save and watch as I progress in my craft.

Having just struggled with sound (4 channels to mix and meld together) I listened once without a picture... just to listen to the mix. I thought it was perfect... save one minor time when the music peaked and competed with your excellent VO.

This competes with broadcast stuff easily.

I agree with Cat that throwing in some wider shots might have been relieving, but as it was I think this was a stellar production - and, is the case with so many other more advanced film-makers here displaying their talents, one I will continue to learn from.

Masterfully done.

Chris Swanberg

ps. Your VO script was delightful by the way. I'd enjoy hearing about how you put it together.

Hi Steve,
Wow what a beautiful piece. As others have already said, your VO was fantastic, & the shots you had following the birds in flight were awesome. I agree that the wing snap is a problem, but as you have said, unless you can expose it properly without going to a higher shutter speed this will always be a problem.
I can't wait to see your next installment this is really getting exciting to see all these films coming together like they are!
Bryce

Steve I was so engaged by your story that I didn’t notice the mistakes - so just as well there are others here who are more observant!

You have a delightful turn of phrase and have managed to turn what is really just a pageant of birds into something quite spectacular.

Oh - and what a pageant! I don’t think we have seen on Uwol such an amazing collection of birds from one place at one time as here - we are so privileged to be able to see this and I am sure it must have been the experience of a lifetime for you.

This film is working out really well.

Well, here is the last round. My story line is still a bit loose, but the nature of the material, and the fact that it was drawn from places thousands of miles from each other are not conducive to tight story telling. So I just went with the flow and had fun with it. I changed the name of the piece to “Miles To Go Before They Sleep”, twisting a line from a favorite poem by Robert Frost.
This fourth installment is an attempt to summarize the whole video in 5 minutes, and hopefully to keep everyone’s interest. I apologize for the fact that it is in a 4:3 format. I am still struggling with finding codecs that will allow combination of 16:9 HD footage and audio that will play, in a PC environment with files that don’t take hours to upload. Vimeo compresses everything to 4:3, and there is a deadline, so…
Anyway, here is a link.

Steve:

I think you are so very talented. You are a natural for narrating, not only in your voice but how you say things. It just flows and is always interesting. Then comes your filming and all that you have been able to knit and weave into your subject matter. I think it is very difficult to cover so much ground, both physically and topically and make it all seem like a natural fit. But this is what you so aptly do. You and Chris both have done well with the Ken Burns effect with stills. This is quite an entry.

Cat

Here is the video in its proper 16:9 format.

Steve,
Your long form #4 is a pleasure to see. I am fascinated by the swans flying in slow motion. Scenes of flying birds against colored skies are attractive.
The "Ken Burns" are also well done.
You have great material for the final long form video.

Steve- I like the new title. I think you’ve come up with a good formula for weaving the segments into an interesting story line. I can’t wait to watch the finished piece next month. Good luck!

Steve this is absolutely beautiful.
Your shots are amazing - especially your birds in flight - from the spectacle of the snow geese and swans, to the birds in Alaska, to the hawk hovering in its search for prey. How do you do that? - Lots of practice I should think, or do you just have a natural talent for following a moving target in your scope?
Your story has good structure - very good idea you have of ending this film with ‘camouflage’, especially for the reasons you give.
Your skies and landscapes are breathtaking - beautiful colours and pans.
The sound that accompanies this is clear - nice balance between music and ambient sound.
Judging by these examples, you have done a very good job using the Ken Burns effect for your photographs and artworks. The pans are slow and steady.
I had to smile when I heard to your final sentence. Boy has this challenge been a learning curve - although, despite all the difficulties - one I do not regret.
I cannot wait to see your final film! Oh and that one-in-a-million shot - now I am hoping that, above all others, you’ll get that one - with all your talent I am very confident you can do it!!!!!
Well done.
Marj

Steve,

you have a fantastic array of wildlife and your story will be awesome when finished !!!


I must chuckle about the lawn chair thing!! Here we have a specticle of 1 to 1.5 million geese coming off a bit of water a few miles from here. In the fall on nice evenings sheila and I have often gone out, pulled the folding chairs out and watched the geese go out ofr the evening feed, or watched them return the odd time if the sunset was going to be awesome. The sound of fall geese is music for the soul, I shoot hours of video of them every fall.

Looking forward to next month.

Dale,
You're lucky to have them so close to home. How's your leg?

Steve

Steve,

I am without cane and hobbling around. I have to more or less walk on flatter surfaces. Tried a hillside yesterday, mistake! I still have to take pain killers to sleep at night, its been three weeks today. I may not get what i need to finish the longform or uwol 15, I am trying however. I need a helper and may have found someone to help this next week.

FAB !

I think your Phase 4 piece explaining your overall structure is interesting in itself so I'm think the actual piece should be fab indeed!

I like the idea for the structuring and I really like the historical 'human back story' as the onlookers to these events. Great footage, nice story and some good cutting! Get this right and I think your going to have a great finished piece of work fella! - One point I know has been raised previously some of the flight has too higher shutter and is very snappy.

:-)

Mat,
I have been trying for the longest time to reduce what you call "snappiness" in my footage. The bottom line is that I can't do it. The common wisdom seems to be that the defect comes from too high a shutter speed. Let's dissect that hypothesis for a moment.
At a shutter speed of 1/60th sec, the camera lets the eye see the moving wing for a long time. Granted, it's blurry, but the eye doesn't seem to mind. At higher speeds (1/300th or more) the camera lets the eye in on smaller amounts of motion that the eye normally cannot sense. These little packages of motion are individually presented to us by the camera only 30 times a second. 1/300th second of movement shown every 1/30th of a second. The eye can handle that. It can see the packets, but our brains can't interpret them, so what we perceive is extra wings. I think this is what you are calling "snap". By viewing frame by frame, it is evident that these wings are not ghosting artifacts. Each frame shows a bird with only two sharply focused wings. Here are the solutions I have come up with and why each of them is not wholly satisfactory.
1. Shoot at 1/100th or below. When run at real-time speeds, you still see extra wings.
This also requires increasing the f-stop, which with Canon lenses seriously compromises sharp focus. Per Johan has noticed the same problem. And what if you need to export a still?
2. Add ND filters instead of changing f-stop. Extra glass also affects the image, adds spots to pans, decreases ability to be ready for rapid changes in lighting, etc.
3. Edit everything into slow motion. This usually works, but do you really want everything to be in slo-mo. What ever happened to leaving nature as it is?
So the bottom line is that my footage is going to have snap. Next time you see a black bird flying away from you against a blue sky, look carefully. You will see four wings.
Snap is not unnatural.

Hi Steve
You seem like you've tested and looked at this a lot but I'll try and respond anyway.

"At higher speeds (1/300th or more) the camera lets the eye in on smaller amounts of motion that the eye normally cannot sense."

IMO - If the frame rate is the same you won't see any more detail in the motion you will simply get less motion blur. In fast flight 25/30 fps is simply not enough too catch enough wing beats so we rely on the motion blur to blend the frames into nice movement. In my experience shooting a bird flight at 1/50th (25fps) gets very mushy but cranked up beyond 120th you get snapping/stobing (whatever you want to call it). I have found around 1/80-1/100 to be good if I'm not slowing down although if slowing down and using frame blending this can be pushed further.

Are you shooting true progressive. Examples of this issue seem to be worse with interlaced source !?

Mat,
Yes, I've tried everything. You bring up a fact that I didn't recognise as a potential problem. Indeed, the Canon XLH-1 does not offer real progressive mode, but something they call "30F" which is "almost indistinguishable from 30P". Frame blend in Adobe Premiere
creates visible ghosts that make the footage even worse. I always disable it.
I often have to export a still, and if it comes down to "mushy" vs "snappy", I'll have to err on the side of snap.

Steve.... your entry could almost be called a "making of" and it was delightfully mesmerizing. I really like your voice for narrating as well as your choice of words... Very pleasant to listen to and the pacing is slow and easy.

I know exactly how you feel about using photographs and attempting to do what Ken Burns has done so well - making them more than a slide show - I discovered it is not always quite so easy. I think you and I probably have advanced that section of our skillsets mutually.

As I watch yours, and more or less the rest of the entries as we work towards the submission deadline, I realize that I probably jumped in the deep end of the pool when I had more wading yet to do, but the process of making my own, and especially watching others, such as yourself, and seeing the results has been better than any film school could have been for me.

Magnificent work. Thanks for the continuing education.

Chris

Hi Chris,
You're not alone in the deep end of the learning pool. Just yesterday I figured out some details about exporting by watching Mat's video that caused me to have to reassemble the whole piece. It will take a week, which is all the time I have. We're all in this learning thing together.

Steve, what a beautifuly narrated piece. You voice is fantastic and the story line is so moving. You are a natural born storyteller. I especially liked one of the opening shots where you tracked the geese through the mist. Also, I liked the way you incorporated the stills. I have done that in a lot of the stuff I shoot and really like the effect. However, I must say that my stills never came out as well as yours. Ithe panning and zooming on them was very well done. I pity whoever has to judge these entriers. Again, great job. Bob