UWOL #9 – Southwest Idaho Neighbors

[Lorinda Norton]

As a few of you may have read, Meryem and I are engaged in a friendly side challenge – she’s shooting a movie for DVC 13 in exchange for me trying my hand at UWOL 9. (You can be happy about one thing, dear Meryem...it was a challenge.) :)

Forgive me if some of the images make any of you feel a bit queasy; I know to avoid using hand held or jerky footage for this type of thing, but with neither the time nor the patience to do it “right,” I’m afraid you’re stuck with what I could snatch here and there. Because it’s not steady/smooth I tried to keep it short and the file size small for faster download.

I’m proud of my state and wish you could see some of the beauty of the central and northern mountains: Clear, wildly rushing and beautiful rivers plus abundant wildlife. Maybe someone else will come along and bring those images to you. Wildlife/Nature video, as I already suspected, is not my gig, unfortunately, so you all will be spared further entries from this ol’ DVCer and I’ll be heading back upstairs when this is through!

[Per Johan Naesje]

Hi Lorinda and welcome to this forum!
I think you did very well for being a "first uwol-timer". You managed to give me a good overall view of wildlife at your place, hence I would like to view some more close-ups of some of the species. But I know not everone has those huge lenses like myself for close-ups!
Good work Lorinda, hope you will continue uwol-ing with us!?

[Oliver Pahlow]

That was very nice Lorinda. It wasn't shakey at all. Great shots. Out of all the states I've been to, I've never been to Idaho.

Oliver

[Lorinda Norton]

Thank you very much, gentlemen, for your generous feedback.

I've got to turn my attention to DVC 13 for now, but have viewed a couple gorgeous films here and will be watching the rest plus adding comments as soon as I can.

[Adrinn Chellton]

Good first entry Lorinda, I'll have to make my way back to the DVC challenge someday. Been thinking about it now and again. You did a great job with the narration on this one.

[Markus Nord]

Nice mix of different animals… short stories about different subject, but together that make up a neighbourhood, nicely done. I hope you stay with us and continue you wildlife filmmaking.

[Vidar Vedaa]

Hello Lorinda


Wellcom on bord,and great to see your entery.It´s easy to see that you is
not new in the game.Your VO and sekvense is werry nice.I must say for
shore It`s allot to learn from you. And I was realy suprice of the compresion
of the film ,so sharp and that small file size. Can I ask how you compress??



Realy nice film


Best Regards
Vidar Vedaa.



_____________________

[Lorinda Norton]

Thank you for the nice comments. VO/narration is a good thing to do from time to time; it reminds me how much I need to work on my speaking.

I don’t remember doing anything out of the ordinary on the MPG4 compression, Vidar, but then again, it was done in such haste that I don’t remember much at all. :) The small file size may have come primarily from cutting it off at 2:45 rather than running it to the time limit. This was shot with the Canon XH A1; I would hope that has something to do with the detail, although, I learned that I can't always trust my eyes on critical focus in tougher situations. I had to kick out some cute stuff and even leave a little in that had soft focus.

[John Dennis Robertson]

Hi Lorinda
Ok no doubt you are comfortable with narration.Yes some of the footage is jerky,but the video on a whole was never dull and was very entertaining,rendering any jerkiness null and void,as I was spending more time watching and listening to the story.Very good entertaining entry.Now I am going to have to go upstairs to try the DV challenge

[Catherine Russell]

Lorinda:

What a blast! Can we have just one more entry from you, please? I loved your narration to this and the music selection brought out the subtle humor in it all. This was great! All the narration from the UWOL guys have been scientific, informative and a bit serious... which is a good thing. But this had such a great twist to it with commentary that had me chuckling more than once. But it was wise commentary too! You brought up what I have often observed myself (like the hawk being badgered by the smaller bird) but never thought to bring it up.

If you really do decide to call it at this one, thanks for the entry. It was very appreciated!

Cat

[Chris Barcellos]

Lorinda:

DVChallengers Rock !!! Nice job Lorinda. Okay Meryem, how you doin' on the other side ???

[David Gemmell]

Hi Lorinda,

Welcome to UWOL, although a shame to hear the trip is likely to be a short one.

For me, I just loved your personality coming through in your narration and the way in which you brought the viewer into your film with comments like "have you ever wondered...". Also, commenting on how the little lost duckling might be feeling, etc. For me, it was just so refreshing, humorous and uplifting. The great selection of music in the background also fitted nicely with the approach you were taking.

The actual footage was lovely and sharp and filmed in very nice light. Lovely beginning, middle and a particularly nice ending shot.

Like Vidar, I also was wondering how you managed to create such sharp footage with such a small file size.

I have been thinking of entering some entries in the "other" challenge upstairs, and your comments have reminded me to look into this - which I am going to do now.

Thanks for sharing your lovely filming style with us and who knows, you might give UWOL another go? I hope you do...

[Peter Damerell]

A nice first uwol film!

You mention smaller birds mobbing hawks. You'll usually find that smaller birds will only mob species which typically prey on ground dwelling species, Buzzards etc have rounded shorter wings which are good for manoeuvring close to the ground as they chase down prey like rabbits. You'll rarely see any smaller bird try to mob a Falcon such as a peregrine. Is long pointed wings are made for out and out speed and it could easily take a harassing bird out of the air.

I hope you continue to give us the occasional uwol entry. I certainly enjoyed this one.

Pete

[Bob Thieda]

Very nice Lorinda...
Good shots...you gave me a good introduction to your piece of the planet.

I must say, as have others, your VO was very....refreshing.
Many of us, myself included, often sound so serious in our videos.
Yours sounded like you were sharing your world with a friend, instead of instructing a high school science class...

Please take a chance on another UWOL...

Bob

[Lorinda Norton]

Wow...this has to be one of the most encouraging group of folks on Earth. After reading your kind and generous comments I thought, “Hmm, maybe this entry wasn’t so bad after all,” so I went back and watched it again. Nah.....it’s just as I remembered it. ;)

I’ve learned so much about patience, precision and persistence on a different scale. In filming people one has to employ the same things, yet with this type of shooting it’s such a solitary and “per chance” endeavor – and I just don’t enjoy my own company well enough, I suppose, to sit for long periods of time waiting for something to happen. In my trips during this challenge I’d sit for forty-five minutes somewhere and think I was going to lose my mind, only to go back home with nothing. Then I read about some of you folks waiting in blinds for hours? Whoa! That’s dedication, and I don’t belong in the same category.

However, it appears that there is ample room and indulgence here for those of us who may fall into the more attention-deficit category of wildlife filming, so I guess I’m not going to say that I’ll never be back. As Kris Holodak in the DV Challenge forum stated, much of the reward for shooting any of these things is the feedback shared with fellow film makers. I certainly got more reward here than was deserved.

Thank you all for the warm welcome. You’ve got a wonderful community here and it was fun chatting with a few old friends plus making new ones. Finally, I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing guys like John, David and others upstairs at DVC! :)