Tales of Wonder and Woe: UWOL #15
 

You all know what to do in here guys and girls.

Post what is going well, what is not going as perfectly as planned...
(A plan only lasts until the second you execute it, right)


Rule #11 should be strictly followed at all times!! :)

I'm wondering what the topic will be, as the weather outside is getting to be very wet, around here!

Only getting to be wet?
Here we had 3 days without rain in September, and so far it seems October won't be much better.
Maybe the topic could be "the kingdom of the soaking wet animals"?
Now, where do I find a wolf with gills? (That would be quite a view, by the way)

Good evening,


Well, I know exactly what I am doing, my favorite water spot.

We had 60 to 80 kn/hr winds today, snowing lightly most the day.

I headed out at 8:30 this morning and returned at 3:30

first blunder: I shot a pile of footage not noticing that I had the camera on a gain of 18 decibles!!! it was dark out but not that dark!!! I had been running some tests as I sat around in the house crippled up last week, smart move, eh??

sheila, my wife, says i need a check list!! I think she may be right!!

I am capturing an hours worth of footage right now but I do not think I will have anything useful.

Going out tomarrow for a second effort!! Hope I do better.

Out to do the first filming this afternoon. We even got sunshine here today, as a nice and most welcome change.
Have the plan for my in details already.

Now I just need my chosen animals to cooperate, as they are very hard to spot.
But this is a challenge, right.

Went out scouting today in the state park near my neighborhood. Things look good. Spotted a red fox, osprey, several white tail deer, more squirrels and chipmunks than I bothered to count, and a beaver.

This is my first UWOL challenge so I'm quite excited. It looks like rain all day today in New Hampshire, but tomorrow looks nice so I hope to get out and start filming tomorrow morning.

Been out in the forest for hours the last two days, trying to find the stars for my video.
Bad luck. Didn't see a single living creature. Not even a bird. Strange.

Trond,


Well, they must have seen you coming!!!



Only thing worse is I spent a few hours shooting the other day and not a minute of useable footage, All my own stupid fault!!

With the last week all freezing and snowing weather my migrant subjects have been moving out in hordes.

May not happen, at least how I planned!!


Good luck on the next go.

Dale, you are probably right.
Didn't really help me to have a 12 m/s wind coming the wrong way either.
But it was nice trips in the forest, so rule nr 11 was more or less followed anyway. :)
(Have to look at it from the bright side, right)
Good luck for your next attempt too.

Well at least you are managing to get out and shoot.

With any luck I'll be able to get out this weekend. I hope the weather and my selected "critters" cooperate.

Well, I came to Montana for a different purpose, but while I was here I thought i would see what I might "scare up" for UWOL 15. In my mind I was thinking Elk, at least. Bad Karma. I have been out for hours each day, and no Elk. Nary a one. It is bow hunting season so maybe they are laying low, and Big Game season opens soon (during which *I* lay low too!)

I managed some fun shots of Antelope, more white-tail deer than I can count and some bison. Ended up playing cat and mouse with a Golden eagle and lost. Last night we spotted a handsome little fox but by the time I could get the camera he was long gone. I wonder if wildlife videographers are like fishermen - "the one that got away".

I have more appreciation for Dale's world after this trip as well... has been cold here in Montana.

I have one more day to find my Elk.... I may go out this evening for a bit.

Chris

Man, am I jealous. I’ve been stuck behind a desk all week. We keep getting heavy rain predictions so I’ve been leaving my rig at home, so it follows that the sun’s been out every day. This weekend is predicted to be cool, and sunny, so now I wonder if I’ll get rained out. The only thing you can predict about east Texas weather is that is will change.

South Texas also. Now that the long drought has finally broke I’ve traded dust above my ankles for mud up to my knees! It keeps life interesting.

Same here... not much in the way of animals at the moment, and the weather is grey and dark. I think they're all hibernating.

Plus I'm sporting an elbow injury which makes carrying my camera gear something of a challenge.

This is going to be fun!

Mike,

you should go on the injured list and tell your story!!

I went out from 7 to noon yesterday to film at my local Audubon center with little luck. The center is small and surrounded by highways, and the animals in southern NH are always quite skiddish. I did see a red fox at the end of my excursion, just in time for it to take cover under a barn. Trying to decide if I should go back for the fox or find a new location farther north.

Dale,

I lifted a 23kg suitcase on my vacation and "pulled something"... not the end of the world, it just makes life that little bit more tender. Should be OK in a week or so. Not even a real injury, by your standards!

My camera arm's still OK, I just need to bribe someone to carry the big rucksack.

Went out this morning. Mist rising off the lake and Canada geese providing plenty of gorgeous shots. I'm using a dinky little $30 point and shoot camera tripod. Oh mercy. Some of the 60fps stuff might work alright, but I cannot wait until I get a real tripod under this camera of mine. Somewhere in between California and Maryland right now on a UPS Ground truck.

Check it out this quick video:

Beautiful day this morning but too many gunshots going off in the park. Sounds like Apocalypse Now.

Might have to wait a week or so till the "City Hunters" stop blasting everything that moves.
Certainly going out to get a blaze orange vest or something. We've already had hunters shot by other hunters this year.

Might have a chance...
The wife is heading down to Springfield for the weekend, (cousin's wedding) and won't be back to tomorrow afternoon...
Tomorrow morning is suppose to be sunny and not too cold...
So I should have a chance to head out to one of the local forest preserves in the AM...

Oh, Sh*t!

So here I am in Pismo Beach for the week. Plenty of material around and I just discovered I left my tripod at home )-:

Guess it's time to go buy a cheap tripod and make do. But I have a bad feeling about pans and tilts.

Been up in the mountains hiking all day. Beautiful sunny weather. Did see a lot of footprints in the snow from birds and some I believe is from lemmings. Was lucky enough to see a rabbit for about 5-10 seconds too.
The bad part, I didn't get the rabbit on tape. So far I have a bit B-roll of the kingdom, but no animals.
Out again tomorrow hoping to get something alive on tape.

Despite my predictions, I went out all day today and had a great day... misty start, but a beautiful sunny, warm day for late Autumn in Ireland.

Pity I didn't see much in the way of wildlife though, despite the promises of thousands of migratory geese having arrived. I am thinking of calling my film "Dots in the distance" at this stage!

I took my "sock-loupe" out for a spin today because of the sunshine. It was unusual (floppy and hard to set up quickly) but it was really good being able to focus using the LCD in bright sunlight, so the good outweighs the bad.

Now I have the joy of sorting out the camera bag. It always starts the day off so neat and tidy and ordered, and by the time I get home I think there's been a fight in there.

Okay, I have been out on three seperate occassions, and all I have to show is leaves, some bugs, and berries. Where did all the wildlife go?

Another nice cool sunny day here, so, I will check in later, after I get back, hopefully with something worthwhile.

Funny...I was asking myself the same question today...

Went to one of my favorite preserves today...beautiful place...
32º when I got there at 8:30am...sunny, nice....sure to be something...well sort of...

Flock of geese just below the dam until I set up my camera and then bye-bye...
Finally found a pair of ducks...across the river and me without any sort of teleconvertor for my short zoom...(miss my GL2 some days)

Stayed until my feet got cold...got about an hour of pretty scenery...may have to tweak the theme...unless I can get back out during the week...

Gratuitous self photo here:
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...oting_1_sm.jpg

Dang. Everyone seems to be having a hard time finding animals. Hope everyone has better luck in these last couple of weeks.

I can see this is going to turn into another "best dressed UWOLer" again!

Not entirely sure what I was trying to capture there. All I noted was that the little Rycote Softie has the same haircut as me...

And yes, what was it with the wildlife? I was promised thousands of geese and other birds, and they had all inexpelicable bug..., er, gone away. The seal colony was empty, and there were no waders anywhere.

I did have one "wow" moment when I was driving along, very slowly, scanning for birds, when a buzzard landed about 12 feet away from the 4x4 on a treetop, stared at me, spread his wings and flapped off down to the shore in an inaccessible area. It's as if he knew that my camera was in the boot/trunk and would take at least 2 minutes to set up...

Hunting season here so everything is laying low and staying put during the day.

Finished. I’m sure there’s a lot more I could do, but I’m still lacking some shots for my long form entry. As soon as I comment on some feedback threads I’m off to try again. Best of luck to everyone. Don’t forget “Plan B”. I use it a lot! (Plan B is always the same- if whatever you went to shoot doesn’t show up, shoot whatever does show up!)

Well, good news and bad news. It was supposed to be raining today and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny morning - the weather held until mid-afternoon! Of course, I did manage to get sunburned.

I was planning on building my entry around two very different specifies. One is migratory and they are not here yet, but at least I managed to get plenty of video of the second one.

Unless I can come up with a second candidate, it looks like a change in the storyline is going to be in order. Still some time to find a second star for my entry, but if all else fails I can put something together with what I have.

Good evening,

Looks like everyone is adhering to rule 11!!! souns like most of the wildlife is laying low.

I was all revved up this morning to go out for a couple hours. went outside and found it fogged in, Uggg.

I dug out the rain jacket for the camera and went anyway.

I got my It was a totally low contrast shoot. Main subject, snow geese in the fog!!!

I did manage to capture a feeding circle of shovellers!! that was the score of the morning.

I got some fine audio if I need it at some point. and I think I got a ghost goose.



here is a look

Finally, on Sunday I was out for 6 hours and did all the filming for my entry.
The only "bad" part was that I had to do everything handheld. But I think it turned out good anyway.
Both me and all my subjects, well maybe not the prey, stricktly followed rule 11 at all time.
And today I did the rough cut. Still much work left, but I am getting there.

Still having some trouble getting quality footage. here is a sample of this mornings effort. I hope to get better footage yet!!

I'm hoping to get some time off on Friday and make another filming trip... I need some sound (!) and I need to get something a bit less "dots in the distance" of my wildlife. Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain for me - it's the only rain-free day forecast this week.

I now have a script too, which helps!

Dale - love the circle feeding! Oh, and your last video is locked, so we can't see your efforts!

I am seeing animals every time I go out. Wish I could share some with those struggling....if you're interested in the standard animal fare of whitetail deer, Canada geese, turtles, mallard ducks, eastern gray squirrels & eastern chipmunks. Got my tripod today and shot some sweet 60fps of Geese landing and a bat flying around.

Woot.

It is unlocked, Daaaaa!

It's my first UWOL challenge, but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to finish my video. After 3 days of filming with little luck at the Audubon center, I don't have enough footage for my planned video (like others, I've found the wildlife difficult to find), and since I'm leaving for California on Sunday morning, I don't have the time to come up with anything new.

I did have a great time going out to film for this project, and so I guess I was able to follow rule 11. I am disappointed, however, since I really didn't want it to end this way. Oh well, I guess I'll have to try again another time.

Good luck to everyone still working. I can't wait to see all the finished submissions.

Jon... sorry to hear, but as is ever the case, life often intervenes in our best planned activities. I hope to see you in the next UWOL challenge.

Chris Swanberg

I'm out today this afternoon, (probably in the rain), in a last-ditch attempt to get better footage. The light here is awful here at the moment, dark, grey, damp and miserable - and most footage I have is very flat and grey as a result. Fingers crossed I get a break in the clouds.

Then it's just 2 days to edit, voiceover and polish... once again, I don't think there'll be any color correction time.

Still, I'm having lots of rule # 11!