Tales of Wonder and Woe: UWOL #7

[Per Johan Naesje]

Well, as Anne-Kari correctly stated earlier - the Eagle has landed!

I'm back from one of the most exciting journey a wildlife photographer can experience. I was able to get real stunning footage of one of the most wild and shy creature we have in Norway - the Golden Eagle.

The footage was shoot in one of the most wild area of our country, hours and hours of waiting for this beautiful bird of prey was at last successfully.
I'm very happy now, this has been a real ADVENTURE and I can promise you some really, really exciting scenes!

Pictures below, show some screen capture of the Golden Eagle, to the right from a distance of approx. 15 meters the Golden Eagle and it's pray!
Left picture show the Golden Eagle in an amazing morning light, that momement was like being into a fairy-tale!

[Carl Middleton]

Well, I'm back!

Woe -
Around 6 hours in a state park with a steadicam J R. My arm is in pain. All batteries are dead, and my AC is on location. I stopped by my boss' house to swap batteries, and he handed me another dead one. Grr.

I get back to the house, my borrowed steadicam breaks, again. This time, a pin comes out of the gimbal! An hour later, relocated and replaced. (Earlier, a snap-into-place thingie broke on the counterbalance, so it no longer locks in fully-engaged mode.) I'll explain this to him AFTER our early-morning shoot tomorrow.

Wonder-
But, I've got some footage for you guys! I hope, seeing as how I CAN'T LOOK AT IT. Argh. :) Also, some pretty cool pictures, which I will send a link to. I really should start a flickr account. Maybe I'll do that tonight.

C

[Bruce Foreman]

A guy who had an acting part in a previous project was intrigued with the idea I had for this one, so Thursday (4 days ago) we did some short test sequences to try some ideas out, and the next day put in all afternoon on a small (very small) mountainside.

(OK...It was a very little mountain, but at my age it doesn't take much.)

Footing was very loose rock, leveling the tripod was almost impossible and even working with a very light weight tripod was...Well...A bit of an adventure in itself.

Shot about 25 minutes of tape and as of now I'm 8 seconds over and looking to begin chopping 1 second off of some clips to get it down a bit.

A bit more work on smoothing out the music score and the serious work of compression begins. Biggest hurdle there is that Windows Vista "broke" my workflow. I've been rendering to an HD MPEG4 and converting that to .mov with QT pro and Vista makes QT choke and die on MP4.

So I'll have to move that part of the process over to an older machine with XP.

But...I'm close..."Vision Quest", opening at a UWOLchallenge.com theatre close to you soon.

[David Gemmell]

Hi Per,

Can't wait to see your entry - I am a big fan of birds of prey and can really appreciate your excitement at capturing this footage.

I'm sure it will be absolutely breathtaking - knowing your standards.

[Eric Gulbransen]

Wonder AND Woe, thoughts of the day...

I hiked 14 miles with 60lbs of gear strapped to my back today - and my back's been broken in seven places.

I drove to a place 60 miles from where I've lived for four years now - yet I'd never been to before.

I stayed two breaths from anaerobic for two hours straight - yet I never realized I was working out.

I learned why a particular bird has a particularly long beak - just by watching him through the glass.

I turned back for three shots I never would have turned back for before - once even from ten minutes out.

I realized I'm nuts, all by myself - and then I laughed out loud.


Sure glad I finally gathered the courage to join YouWoll...

[Chris Hayden]

I learned that my little camcorder's lens stinks at full zoom when I captured some really fuzzy footage of a coyote hunting right near my house. I learned that my cheap tripod is very inadequate. And I learned that there are more different kinds of critters living near me than I realized, until I went out and really started looking at them! Someday I'll save for a new camera and tripod but for now I'll keep using what I've got. More importantly, I'll keep looking at what's crawling/flying/walking near me, keep looking & learning; maybe I'll get something useable!

[David Gemmell]

Hey Eric,

Yep, there definately the symptoms all right - UWOL captures yet another victim!

Great shot - looks like your ADVENTURE is well underway.

My weekend trip has been cancelled, so I'm now starting to think of a plan B.

Looking forward to seeing your entry.

All the best and keep laughing...

[Mat Thompson]

wow Per....great, great stuff ! I still haven't had the pleasure of seeing one of these amazing birds and I've wanted to for a long time. Loooking forward to your footage fella!

[Carl Middleton]

Originally Posted by Chris Hayden

And I learned that there are more different kinds of critters living near me than I realized, until I went out and really started looking at them! . . . . More importantly, I'll keep looking at what's crawling/flying/walking near me, keep looking & learning; maybe I'll get something useable!

That's an awesome attitude to have! It's amazing when you first realize what is around us, that we as a people ignore every day... I've heard it said more than once that cinematography is the art of looking, really LOOKING at what is in front of you. :)

[Brian McKay]

Hello All:

I survived, did a count on fingers and toes all are accounted for. The images are on tape if there any good well that remains to be seen....hell is it even an adventure I'm not sure but we had fun pulling it all together. It was a two camera shoot so it will be fun to cut from one to the other and so on.

I'll start the edit tonight.....that is if I have anything worth editing.

Trond thanks for the link to the camera cover...it's now on my wish list.

Brian

[Meryem Ersoz]

Originally Posted by Chris Hayden

And I learned that there are more different kinds of critters living near me than I realized, until I went out and really started looking at them!

transforming the way you see the world...this is the very essence of shooting nature and outdoors. even without my camera locked to my eyeballs, just when i'm out walking through the world, i see things that used to pass by unnoticed by me...i see more birds, notice more plants, am aware of more animals, and observe more insects. my experience of the world has been expanded and enriched because my camera taught me to see.

per, those are great shots, can't wait to see your video. there's golden eagles about 5 miles from my house, but every time they see me trotting around the open space with my camera, they flee. in fact, just this weekend, i missed shots of a kestrel and a hawk as well. i have some footage of all of these birds, but nothing that i would call *good* footage. it does take more patience than i have (or more time, i guess...), to shoot great bird footy....

[Per Johan Naesje]

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

per, those are great shots, can't wait to see your video. there's golden eagles about 5 miles from my house, but every time they see me trotting around the open space with my camera, they flee. in fact, just this weekend, i missed shots of a kestrel and a hawk as well. i have some footage of all of these birds, but nothing that i would call *good* footage. it does take more patience than i have (or more time, i guess...), to shoot great bird footy....

Patience is one of the most important thing you need in wildlifefilming. These shoots was only possible by waiting for approx. 8 hours, then if you was lucky maybe 15 minutes of footage.
The smallest move with your body making noise or any fast movement with your lens and your baby are gone long before you hit the record button. And no more action for a day or two!
I think I wasn't breathing for several minutes when that eagle was sitting only 15 meters in front of me. He looked right into my lens and with my huge focal lenght I was almost immobilized when he was glancing at me!

[Vidar Vedaa]

hi Per

Realy nice photo,if it have some interess some photo from my cottage
last spring.Same eagel you see on NRK brodcast 3 week ago.
A good locacion tips Per.

VJV.

[Carl Middleton]

I just realized, that I have prioritized UWOL over moving this coming weekend.

I realized this after I told a friend I planned to edit evenings through the week, then hopefully finish with a good go on Saturday. Sunday I would throw all my belongings in boxes, move, and unpack, probably in a 6 hour window. =D That way, I would have time to pass an EDL and my files to the Macpro at work and do some finetuning in Color. =D

Here's to the UWOL Challenge. Worth living out of boxes for!

[Meryem Ersoz]

Originally Posted by Per Johan Naesje

Patience is one of the most important thing you need in wildlifefilming.

Raising a 7 year old is not conducive to patience and 8 hour waits...buy maybe in another 11 or 12 years or so....

Carl, that's a funny story...glad to see that you have your priorities straight! Another addict succumbs, mwahahaha....