video
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Locust Swarm in Madagascar
Shortly after arriving in Madagascar a few years ago, we watched the BBC’s Planet Earth II episode in which a film crew found it amazingly difficult to track down a swarm containing more than a billion of the tiny, destructive creatures. Apparently, it can be surprisingly difficult to find and film them. We had also…
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Swimming with Whale Sharks in Madagascar
Check another item off the bucket list: in November, we made it to Nosy Be to see the whale sharks – considered endangered by some – feeding on the plankton that “bloom” there the same time every year. This capped off an amazing year in Madagascar – just a month prior, we managed to get out…
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Whale Watching in Madagascar
Every June or July, thousands of humpback whales migrate thousands of miles north from Antarctica to have their young just off the coast of Madagascar. And finally we made it up in time to see them (September is best!) Not only did I want to go out and see them, but it was also one…
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Flying Solo over the Shenandoah
When I first saw footage taken on DJI’s new consumer drone, my response was, “MUST HAVE.” I’m now on my second camera drone, the 3D Robotics Solo, and I’m still in search of the elusive magical footage – soaring over the Okavango Delta as a herd of Wildebeest run from some unseen predator, flying in…
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3DR Solo: Droning in the Snow
I love these camera-toting quadcopters. Partly because it’s just fun to fly stuff around (yes, I’m still about 12 at heart) but mostly because of the new opportunities they offer for photography and videography. After seeing the first few videos people had made with them, I was hooked. The problem is, the technology moves so…
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Ganesha Chaturthi, Chennai Style (Part 2: Video)
Yesterday I explained a bit about the festival currently ongoing in Chennai (and across India) – Ganesha Chaturthi – and posted some photos. It’s hard to really capture the atmosphere of the event with photos only – a video in this case is much more helpful. Â After watching this video, if you think this is…
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My Destination’s “Biggest Baddest Bucket List” and Namibia
Here’s a great idea for a video contest: make a 3 minute video about a favorite destination, write a few hundred words about travel, and send three photos. What can you win? a six-month, all-expense-paid trip around the world, and fifty grand in cash when it’s all over (presumably to make up for lost salary?)…
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Animal Shorts!
A handful of short wildlife videos from a recent trip. In the first, we discover how the “puff adder” got its name. Then, see a group of banded mongooses – mongeese? – doing silly things. Finally, a crocodile enjoys a snack, like clockwork, at 2 pm on Saturday. The videos are all taken at Kempinski…
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21 Sunsets – a timelapse project
I love doing timelapses – especially of natural phenomena. But I admit it can be a lot harder than it first appears – if you want to do it right. But moving to Namibia and finding housing on a westward-facing hill – I knew that would be a great opportunity to hone my timelapse skills.…
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Micro Photography – Handheld Digital Microscope Review
So you’ve heard of macro photography – and I’ve been blogging about it recently as well. But what about micro photography? Ever wanted to take a picture of something you can only see under a microscope? Well, how about video? It used to be really expensive, but there are a couple of options out there…
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Immersive Video – the Next Big Thing?
3-D video is so 2009. Now that virtually anyone with a couple of cameras (or a YouTube account) is capable of producing relatively decent 3-D videos, people are already starting to look for the Next Big Thing. I think it’s going to be 360 degree immersive. Like 3-D, some form of the technology has been…
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World Run Day MasterCard Spoof
November 7 was this year’s “World Run Day”. For those who haven’t heard of World Run Day, the organization’s web site states, “It is a day for runners worldwide to join each other, wherever their location, in a celebration of running and charitable giving.” You can sign up, get a T-shirt and a bib number,…
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Sky and Sea Videos – Pitfalls to Avoid
The other day I was working on a home video of a recent vacation to Egypt, and I invited my 12-year-old to a pre-screening of my near-final draft (a shorter version here), and she told me it was all wrong. “Why?” I asked, horrified. “Your horizons are all crooked.” And she was right. I had…
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Maintaining Ownership of Your Images
Scott Bourne made some interesting points on the blog Photofocus. He pointed out something many of us overlook in today’s world of social media marketing and sharing – that posting a photo via Twitter (which will apparently soon be possible) or Twitpic, or even on sites like Facebook means you have basically given up control…
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Telling a story in video
The cool thing about all this technology is that now anyone can create just about anything and share it with everyone else. Most of it goes unnoticed by the vast majority, but that’s not why most of us create. Most of us create out of some intrinsic desire to imagine, to create, to make something…
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Army Peer-to-Peer Safety Video Contest
Good news and bad news – my entry to the US Army Combat Readiness / Safety Center’s video contest was approved, but so were a load of others! The contest has been running since October, but like most video contests, most of the entries will be rolling in close to the 30 April deadline. So…