Toads, the jesters of the amphibian world.

Finn-Erik Faale, you did a fine job of capturing them, as I remember them in my youth.

The local ponds around here, do not have them any more, due to snapping turtles and pollution, in the water.

If I want to hear or see them, I must now make the long trek, down to Lake Ontario, to one of the local beaches, at the base of the Scarborough Bluffs.

The "period" music, was perfect, as it does remind me of some old medival films, showing king,queen, and the jesters.

Fin,


some great footage of the toads. We have them but not in mnumbers like you show in this pond.

curiously, what was that on the surface of the water??

The one shot with the fish swimming under the toad I would have liked a little more of!

some naration would have been awesome for it!!

Liked the music.

Keep up the good work!

Dale, if you look closely, as I did, a few times, just to be sure,lol, they are not fish, but salamanders.

Finn-Erik,
I quite enjoyed watching this. The main emotion it evoked in me was one of nostalgia. It brought back memories of an earlier part of my life. I wanted to roll up my pants and go wade with an empty glass jar. As for chaos, I guess more shots like the one with the rogue male attacking the amplexing couple might have been called for, but really I was content to forget about the theme and just get lost in the scene. I agree with Sam. Those are newts- possibly Common Newt. I’m sure that Finn-Erik can see on the full size uncompressed video which species it is. I also agree with Dale. That’s a great shot!

Sam, thanks for creating the thread.

I hope this video will show my experience of the chaotic world of wild and desiring frogs.

Modern farming has reduced the basis of existence for amphibians, also in Norway.
But, as you see, it is still possible to find ponds loaded with frogs.

Dale, the mass with the black spots is the frog’s eggs. One scene shows a leaf drifting over the surface.

About the salamanders: Actually, I did not recognise them until I came home and studied my shots.

Finn-Erik

Finn-Erik, quite interesting to watch your frog chaos film! Seem to be very crowdy in the pond. And I believe it's more crowdy now as the tadpoles are swimming around!
Very sharp footage with a good editing phase and your guitar tune was just amazing!
Well done!

Finn-Erik,

Interesting music, it sounded very Olde English to me! But it worked very well, and suited the toads perfectly. The "music" of the toads themselves was great.

They certainly don't lead an ordered life! I especially liked the tracking shot at around 0:50 that showed the two toads (male and female, I presume) swimming along, that was very well framed and very smooth.

The close-up at 1:31 was just super as well. I love the shots where you're right down into the water almost.

And that little fellow at the end just looks so content, doesn't he!

Very nice indeed.

Finn-Erik,

Those guys were certainly chaotic! :)

You don't find anything like that here in Iowa anymore. So see a ton of tadpoles but never see toads or frogs like that.

Very enjoyable piece. Had some great shots in there!

Awesome job on the guitar too!

A good set of clips, and there seemed to be no storyline, so illustrating the chaos well. The music was nice, but personally, I think it was too loud. The music should have complemented the natural sounds, but instead it overwhelmed them. I was glad of the break when there was no music.

What a beautiful video - totally fascinating to watch. It almost felt like I was sitting quietly on the grass edge just watching the activities in the pond. Your music, your clear, well framed images, the ambient sound effects - everything just works so well. Your final image is the highlight for me - what a stunning composition and perfect for your credits. The music in particular is so appropriate for the setting and beautifully performed by both of you.
While it does not detract from the overall quality of the video for me I am not entirely sure that this can be classed as chaos - seems to me like the toads were going about their activities in almost business-like order! Just as wel we are all different and have different ideas. For me - a very polished piece.