I've uploaded a short video of the Capercailzie mating game at Vimeo. The video show some of the spectacular action which taking place at dawn in a short periode in the spring time. This has been more and more a rare thing to experience. Area of old forest has been lost due to logging and places like this is therefore quite rare in my country!
Luckily there are a few places left and here is on of those places:
http://www.vimeo.com/988816

This is a quite heavily compressed file, only 25MB in size. But the quality is still good and I think you will get an impression how it was to be there!

Enjoy!

Hallo Per Johan.


Yes this time of year is special,it do something inside it`s a lovely
time. And to see this film of your`s make it fare beter lovely cut
Per Johan. Shud I say someting maybe I will have lowerd the black
a litle bit?

Great work!!!


VJV.


_________________

Capercallies have such great focalisations and a very unique bird. Your footage is just stunning Per Johan, infact one of the best sequences I've seen you post. It has such a great selection of shots, from details (like the excellent tail feather passing over the females face) to mids and wider shots. Maybe a reveal/s would have added even further to it but it was great like it was. Fab stuff fella!

Per,

This is a great video. I am especially impressed by the wide variety of shots - you captured a lot of behavior. Also, how did you get such outstanding audio? Clearly, since it was in sync with the video of the closeup shots of the male calling, it was recorded at the time? Very impressive.

Ruth

I enjoyed this very much! I know it's been commented already but I'd like to say it too - the wide variety of shots is just great!

I'm envious - the only time I saw Capercaillies displaying was through pouring rain and at a great distance. I managed to get something on video - if the birds weren't so big, you wouldn't have seen them.

Yours is excellent footage, but some of the cuts look very abrupt. I'm not sure, but it could be made worse by the compression.

Cracking video footage with an atmospheric sound track.

In the opening 'scene' is that the sounds of a Black Grouse lek in the background?

Thanks all for you comments!
This was the first time I've tried the Vimeo site for uploading videoes. The upload file was a bit too small I think, hence the quality of the pictures (the original HD master is stunning to watch!).
I'll try some more uploading at Vimeo to get a grip on what is suitable to upload.
The clips was "thrown" together more or less and I will work more on a better version when I got some time.

Steve, you're right. It's a Black Grouse Lek a couple of hundred meters from where I was hiding! Small country hu!?
I was not happy when I first notice it when I was monitoring the sound during the recording, but I also got adequate sound without the Black grouse background too.

Per Johan,

I think the soundtrack is great. Distant bubbling/crooning Blackcock & Raven's cronking reinforce the boreal wildwoods feel....... acoustic ectasy!!!

Also, how did you get such outstanding audio? Clearly, since it was in sync with the video of the closeup shots of the male calling, it was recorded at the time? Very impressive.

RuthYes, the audio is recorded on the spot. I'm using a pair of Sennheiser Me-67 shotgun mics. They was placed in front of the hide covering the entire sector. The sound picture is very good and on my studio monitors you can observe by your ear when the birds are moving from on side to the other. Very cool!

Per Johan,

I loved this footage!!! This grouse reminds me of our North American Blue Grouse, size is about the same it appears too. The mating ritual is slower paced like a Blue or A Sage Grouse.

I like that on vimeo you can have finer resolution!!! It really shows off the Birds!!!

As always, great footage.

Thanks for sharing!

Per Johan,

Great footage and lovely sound.

One point I noticed that with other HD video's there is a symbol on screen saying "HD is on", it is missing on this video. Maybe you get get even better on-line quality.

Eagerly awaiting your next video.

Bob

[QUOTE=Per Johan Naesje;874898]
............It's a Black Grouse Lek a couple of hundred meters from where I was hiding! .....QUOTE]

I really would love to see 10 seconds of this 3.5 minutes at its original quality. This plumage detail is blurred by compression. What lens did you use with XLH1? It is truly amazing what image quality you are able to capture from a couple of hundred metres. My most urgent question is how do you optimize the sharpness of your manual focus at 200 metres? Or, to put it another way, do you have an aid or accessory or technique to confirm that you are in sharp focus when you are using manual focus (at 200 metres) OTHER THAN YOUR eyesight?

Brendan, it's the SOUND from the Black Grouse Lek a couple of hundred meters away I'm referring to in my previous replay and not the actual footage!
The distance to the Capercailzie which you actually view in this film is between 5 and 25 meter only!

BTW, I'll look at some more footage in a better quality to upload, stay tuned!

I've been updating my own website (had some difficulties earlier), seem like the quality of footage is slightly better at my site than vimeo!

Here's is the link for the capercailzie mating game:
http://video-film.no/snutter/tiurleik.html

Enjoy!

Now that is fantastic. Superb plumage detail in every frame. It really does make a huge difference to the credibility of the show.

Now I'm going to be nagging you about the specifications of your website that allow you to show footage of that image quality! What are the secret formulae of your website, Per Johan?

I liked the quality of this video and could see that you put much effort into approaching them without causing alarm. If you allow your videos on Vimeo to be downloaded, other registered members can view the full quality of your source upload, in the format you used. None of the heavy Vimeo compression is applied when you download them, using the button at the lower-right corner. If you do a right-click on the button, and then click on Save Target As, you can designate a folder on your computer and save the download for repeated viewings.

Per Johan,
You are absolutely a genius. I'm drooling all over my keyboard.

The more I see this film the more I, as a grandfather, appreciate the majesty and seduction of mating. This beauty is conveyed here by the producer as well as by the birds. Elsewhere on DVInfo, anthropomorphism, is the word to describe what we do when we use words about human behaviour to describe animal behaviour; for a good example (but bad image quality through car window) see "Partridge is not amused" (which is a misquote from Queen Vic.) http://birdcinema.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8c6aa018e86dac21d360

I wonder what the word is to describe how some human behaviour could be improved, even civilised, by studying some animal behaviour?

I'm not suggesting that this is an original question; I am stating that Per Johan's videographic and production skills have combined to raise this question in my mind. This adds to my enjoyment of the film. The comments made by Annie, Helen, Ruth and Mat also help me to appreciate the selection of shots used by Per Johan. I'm learning; yippee!