Sunday, June 23, 2013

A Hike Along The East Track Wetlands



Warning: If video, or improving your video skills is of no interest, then ignore this site. I think video provides another opportunity, although a different one, of presenting your interests- wildlife,travel,or whatever in a pleasing way. Video adds movement and life. The editing equipment is quite good, but video is different than shooting stills.You'll see that in this video where I've linked clips to create a virtual hike the viewer participates in. I'm hoping to get enough people to create a common learning site. To that end I'll post this on My World meme separately.

I'll warn you now that this is a long video, about 11 minutes long. The East Track is an abandoned railway line that ran from here, central Northern Ontario, south east to Ottawa then on to the Port of Montreal. The main idea was to skip Toronto. Most of the northern part is wilderness. The extent of the line I don't know, but remember that Ontario is large enough to hold Texas and California, and still have some room left. This part of the hike is about 8 kms return. It, the trail, crosses a road which leads to an inhabited lake, one of the few inhabited lakes in the area. I marked the intersection, and have made arrangements for some one to drive me there and pick me up, so I can hike another 8 km on the other side, about my limit.

On the other site, I had mentioned the Trans-Canada trail system. I only use that on the River, and even then generally use the cross country sky trails. I generally hike abandoned rail lines, mining roads, or maintenance roads, and old trails. Therefore I carry emergency and safety gear. I even carry a map and  an old style compass in case the cell phone doesn't work.

Now to the video. The purpose was to show you a transition Boreal forest. Its richness and lushness, and to give you some idea of the area where Boomer and I, and now me, wander. I'm still in the beginner section of  PS video software. I think the filming is less jerky. Now I need to try filming the wildlife, but the screen makes that difficult,especially in the sun. It took me about a week and a half to edit this, so I won't be setting up a meme anytime soon ( maybe sooner if the shield works. See below.). The video has a surprise ending proving you can take the boy out of advertising, but you can't take advertising out of the boy. The fades that bridge the stills gave me a chance to try numerous types.

I just googled video cameras with viewfinders. There are such animals, which are of course a step up from conventional camcorders. In fact they range up to $7000 US in price. Although Canon has one, the XA10, which is about $1900 in Canada. I think video, apart from kids and weddings,  has not caught up to wildlife and the wilderness, at least where I want to be, and for amateurs like me in general. I think what I'll do at this stage is perfect the scenic, and work at pleasing cut ins of stills. When I've moved out of the rank amateur to at least "gifted" amateur in this area, I'll look at the higher quality video set up.

Nancy from the note below is right of course. You can buy a hoodman loupe and harness to overecome the light problem which I'll do.On this site I'll let you know how I make out.

I generally look for creatures. On the next leg of this journey, I'll be looking for moose. But most photo ops happen totally by chance.

Click here to return to site one, the stills site:  Site One. A post to Our World.

6 comments:

  1. I loved every minute of it Gary, could feel right there, and the stills, great editing. Yes, for me too, it takes a long time to do the whole video. Canon XA 10, here is about
    NZ $ 2800, Hugh's dream. Can you get the viewfinder fitted with a snap on hood, with top and angled sides, that reduces the glare a lot, Hugh has one on his Canon 40D. Take care, greetings from Jean.

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  2. Beautiful scenery and the video shows it differently from the still photos. I appreciate your comments about your equipment and the process to video and make a great clip. Wish I could do something like this for my area but my first purchase would have to be a very stable tripod set-up - my hands are just too shaky!

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  3. Love the video, Gary! Your editing was wonderful. I love the scenery and the pretty wildflowers. The raccoon looks like a cousin to the one, I see here on my deck. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. Great video Gary. It gives a much better idea of you roaming the woods than stills do.
    Wildlife are funny things, they never keep an appointment and in my experience any opportunity s by sheer chance.

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  5. I am not experienced at videotaping. I seem to shake too much so have a lot of respect for those who do so well. Kudos.

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  6. This is great, Gary! You have done an excellent job and because you spent a lot of time creating this, it is worth while seeing it., thanks for sharing.
    Wil, ABCW Team

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