UWOL #24 - Birds - by Trond Saetre

[Trond Saetre]

I found this lake where a lot of birds of different types live close together. So that became my plan B.
Well, the plan developed as I found the lake and during the filming.
At some times I even had to walk away to get wide enough shots, because the birds kept coming to me all the time.
Should have had more variation in the shots...
Some technical issues left me with about half the narration I wanted, so the "story" is limited.

Vimeo

[Markus Nord]

Nice film Trond!
Don’t be afraid of getting close-ups, I think you could have got some really close-ups of the swan youngster, and mix the shot up to a sequence with wide, tight, close-ups, wide and so on… You did it nice with the house Sparrow.

Good job!
/Markus

[Trond Saetre]

Thanks Markus,
Especially the swans wanted to come really close...
Now that I have found that location, I might go back later and try to get some very close-up shots.



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Notice:
The embedded video here in my first post in this thread only gives standard resolution. For HD, please follow the official link:
http://vimeopro.com/user8310268/uwol-24

[Finn-Erik Faale]

It is an unusual situation when the birds are following the photographer.
As a rule either the lens is not log enough to get closeups or the bird flies away...
You have got good shots with different birds in your film.

[Paul Wood]

Hi Trond,
I agree with the other comments, but think you did an excellent job of making an interesting story out of an everyday scene - good photography as well.

[Toni Dolce]

Hi Trond!

Cool video! Loved the different types of birds that you captured! After rewatching the video, the only thing that I would have liked to see would have been a little color correction on some of the shots. At times, I felt with a bit of adjustment on exposure, the birds would really pop!

Toni

[Trond Saetre]

Paul,
Thank you for the feedback.

Toni,
I actually did color correct several of the clips, but my skills could improve. I'll look into it again.
The shot where the swan is swimming and looking straight into the camera, was also difficult to get the right exposure. Looks way too bright, but any changes I tried, only made it worse.

[Ruth Happel]

Trond- Talking animals, what is not to love ; )

I liked the variety of shots, with lots of different birds. You should definitely go back, since it looks like an amazing opportunity to get footage of a variety of birds really close.

Please include some more birds in future films, I really enjoyed watching them. It is a beautiful spot!


Ruth

[Mike Sims]

Hi Trond. I’m glad we both managed to avoid the sharks this time! (One of these days someone is going to make us a video about sharks…) Finding this place was a lucky thing. Not only did you put together a nice story (even with the problems you mentioned) but now you can return and follow your new bird friends throughout the year. I hope your video project about Bergen that you told us about earlier is going well. I would like to see and hear more. See you next time.

[Trond Saetre]

Ruth,
The talking animals was inspired from your previous films with Robin.
Thought I'd do something different this time.

Mike,
Yes, a future theme probably will be "how to avoid the sharks", haha.
The audio problems was caused by the sound-card. For some reason it changed settings to digital input and output. Took me a while to figure out what had changed.

My Bergen project has been delayed a bit. Too busy (and also some record amounts of rain) this summer, but I will finish it sometime. Hopefully I can include some filming during the fall and winter... to make it an "all season about Bergen".

[Bill Thesken]

Hey Trond, it was a little too short since I look forward to seeing your films.
2 questions, what did you use to catch the sound, and what camera did you use?
On-scene audio and film was crystal clear, maybe the lighting was a little too bright at times,
but the focus was crisp. The audio of the birds landing in the water in the beginning caught
my attention, and I may want to replicate that technique.

[Trond Saetre]

Bill,

I use the Canon XF300.
Agreed, some shots were overexposed. (I was using full manual exposure all the time)
I believe I used autofocus for most of the shots, (I normally prefer manual focus)

All the "on location" audio was recorded with the internal mic of the camera.
I had to amplify the sound of the birds landing in the water a bit in post, and for this I used Adobe Audition, but nothing else was done to the audio.

[Andrew Bove]

This was great! Those are such funny birds!

[Simon Wood]

Going to the pond to feed the ducks (or the park to feed the pigeons) is one of the first ways that kids can actually interact with wild animals; so this is a really good use of the theme. Its funny that those birds are so habituated that they actively chased you up from the lake to investigate if you had anything for them
As everyone else has mentioned you have some great shots of the birds; that swan is particularly beautiful. Well at the very least you have found an excellent resource for future UWOL's I reckon.

[Geir Inge]

You provide a nice little video, Trond.
Fine and clear color and editing is also nice and straightforward.
It's nice to see wild animals in people's Neighborhood and that interaction takes place on several levels.
Between humans, humans and animals, and between different species.
A somewhat brief history, with the benefit could be made ​​longer with more close-up, perhaps?
Thank you for sharing your world with us.

All the best.