UWOL 16 Tales of wonder and Woe!

[Dale Guthormsen]

Good Morning,

Thought I might start this thread, it always keeps things lively and more interesting.

I woke up to snow on the ground, and its supposed to warm up to -2c (ok, thats 35 degrees f). Its been raining or snowing sense the 1st, figures.

Between the rain and snow I have formulated my short, made a shot list and am waiting for some reasonable weather.

I hope you all are fairing better than I am and at least getting some shooting in!!


Dale

[Mike Sims]

I came up with an idea for this one right away. It usually takes me two weeks at least to come up with a workable idea. I went out the next day to start shooting and ran into a snag. When mounted on my window mount my new tripod head is two inches too tall to fit the camera in the window of any vehicle I have access to. My subjects must be approached using the car as a blind. I think I have a solution, but it will be two more days before I find out if it will work. Meanwhile, I’m thinking about other subjects in case I’m unable to make this work…

Dale- Sorry about your weather problems! I just got a report on a Texas Ornithological Society field trip last week to a location I frequently shot at last year for the long form. On Thursday they had 100 degrees (F) and that night they were snowed on!

[Dale Guthormsen]

Mike,

weather has been pretty volitile to be ceretain!!

shooting out a window I found windows to shakey if you clamp to them. I bought a foam bead pillow (great for cold mornings in the blind too!) I rest it on the door of the open window then presss the camera down into it for a much steadier shot! I can not shoot at the long end of telephot lens like a 400mm!!!. Up to 200 with ois on the images are pretty reasonable if its not windy and moving the car. Oh yea I got the pillow in the sporting department at wall mart! five to ten bucks as I recall.

[Mike Sims]

Thanks Dale! I'll give it a try. I'll probably be working at around 100mm. The window mount has been pretty stable in the past for static shots, the old 501 head just wasn't up to smooth pans.

[Jeff Hendricks]

I have a script ready to go to my wife for approval...then I may begin.

[Trond Saetre]

A couple ideas have come and quickly passed by again. Still twisting my brain.
For once it is forecasted nice weather (which means no rain) for the next week, so that shouldn't be a problem this time. Still plenty time. No worries yet.

[Ryan Farnes]

I'm young so this isn't that crazy, but I've shot some of the best wildlife footage in my life the last couple of days. Barred owls.

I look forward to starting some sort of episode based series as a reason for me to produce more and more natural history content on my own. Like I mentioned in another thread, I may use this challenge as my "1st episode" or at least piggy back a bunch of the footage.

[Dale Guthormsen]

Good Morning, Well maybe????

Here is a picture of what we woke up to this beautiful may 6th day. and it is still snowing. And I thought I'd be sailing and shooting video!!!

[Trond Saetre]

Whoa, Dale's spring time has been cancelled this year.
Hope the summer gets a little bit warmer.

[Meryem Ersoz]

pretty shot, Dale - I woke up to the same thing...snow! on May 7!

craziest. weather. ever.

[Dale Guthormsen]

Meryem,

I think there must be a ratio between altitude and latitude!!!

Have not shot a single frame yet, ug!


dale

[Sam Mendolia]

We're getting the tail end of Dale's weather system. we've had thunderstorms, really heavy rains, and strong winds, that are knocking down tree limbs, making it a little dangerous to go out and get any footage in the area I had planned.

So much for this weekend, hopefully I'll be able to get out at some point next weekend, after the dentist appointment.
Hahaha.

[Trond Saetre]

Finally, I think I have got an idea I can actually use. But it requires shooting on a lot of locations.
Why make it easy if you can make it very complicated. So we'll see how it goes.
If I only knew how to securely mount my camera in the car to avoid it from bouncing around while filming and driving at the same time. Hm, why do I have to come up with so complicated ideas??
Might have to go back to the drawing board again...

Sam, I'll try to share some of our sunshine, but please don't feel the need to share your weather. ;)

[Geir Inge]

Well, last Friday I sat out to get some shooting done.
First (in the morning) I had to pack all my gear into the car, drop off my wife at her job and then off it went to my location for shooting.
I had packed all my gear the day before, the weather forecast was super and so everything should be in order to get a wonderful day, out there alone in the bush.
Just before me and my wife took off, I thought it was a bit strange she asked me if I had forget anything???
But not a single bell rang in my head.
So after a 2 hours drive I was finally there. Deep inside the fjord landscape and the sun was shining.
Oh, how wonderful it is when everything turns out right, eh?
Well, let me see ( I have this thing talking to myself when I am on location) I have to unpack my gear.
OK, camera, check.
batteries, check.
extra lense, check.
rain cover (didn't need it), check.
tripod........?
I said tripod......?
What the......?
Then the bell rang... my tripod is safe back home, lying on the floor.
My wife did think it was odd, but she often find my things floating around on the floor, (shoes, jacket, bag etc, etc) so she didn't find it unnatural either.
Well, did I get some shooting done?
Both yes and no. I did some freehand shooting.
Though it has nothing to do with me forgetting my tripod, I was too late for filming my object.
Too late in season, so I went empty handed back home.
Now I have to improve my rutines on packing my video gear, and I also have to find another object.

Good luck everyone and remember to bring along your tripod, your batteries, whatever..
.. and please, do listen to your wifes when they tell you to clean up your things and stuff.

geir inge

[Dale Guthormsen]

Geir,

it wont be the last time I bet!! My wife has harped on me to make a list, and she is right!

I keep several things in the truck 24/7 spare tapes, a battery, an old tripod, plastic bags, water and lens cloth!!! I also keep a plastic tub with a lid on it with tools and things.

One thing for sure, a camera bag is never big enough!!!

Rained all day today, still have not shot!!!

At least the snow should be over!

Dale