Year: 2013
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How do tortoises “get it on”?
Ever wonder how turtles and tortoises “get it on”? You’d think they were cursed by anatomy, but yes, they do mate – there’s no “you lay the eggs and I’ll come along after and fertilize them.” Animal Planet’s probably all “been there, done that” but on a recent trip to Madagascar I heard the strangest…
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Meh. Who Needs Pixar?
Remember the technological wizardry, engineering know-how, and computing power it took to make Toy Story? Well, a couple of teens (and a whole bunch of their friends) decided to see if it was possible to make a “live action” version. And here it is! It seems they’re getting all sorts of positive press, both in…
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Free Jungle Sounds
Every now and then I come across some sounds that might be of use to other video hobbyists. These are pretty clean, high quality recordings taken with a Rode Videomic. Feel free to download the sounds and use them for whatever you want. Frogs Sound – the sound of African bullfrogs croaking. Recorded at Kempinski Mokuti…
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Exploring Madagascar’s Jungles at Night
If you ever find yourself in Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in Madagascar, be sure and check out the “night walk”. You can hire a tour guide who will walk you down a quiet, dark road flanked by thick jungle, and alert you to various types of lemurs, reptiles, amphibians, and other creatures you’ll never see by…
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Elgato Video Capture Solves the FireWire-USB Dilemma
I’ve got stacks of 8mm and “Hi8” video recordings going all the way back to 1990 when I bought my first camcorder to capture all the adventures my young wife and I were about to undertake. Locked somewhere in those plastic cases holding spool after spool of magnetic tape were memories of a 23-year-old Army…
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One-Way Ticket to Mars: Now Accepting Applications
(Updated on Apr 23, 2013 – see bottom of post) The organization “Mars One” has just released its eligibility requirements to become an astronaut in their 2023 Mars mission. And the good news is, if you’re over 18 and reasonably intelligent, you probably qualify, and it’s going to be free! – wait, what??? Why was I…
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The Right Music for a Video. But Not Quite.
Sometimes finding exactly the right ‘feel’ music for a video is the most fun part of video editing, and other times I dread it. Because I already know that it’s going to be impossible to find music that won’t be too depressing, won’t be too happy, too distracting, irritating – in short, that won’t even…
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2013 “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” Competition Kicks off Today
In its 49th year, the venerated “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” competition is accepting entries from today (January 7) until February 25th. Competition will be stiff, with the number of entries expected to be near 50,000, but who knows? You can enter in one of 18 categories, including three for photographers under age 17. Even…
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Attenborough’s “Africa” Features Namibia – Prepare to be Amazed! (updated)
If you have access to BBC One (or live in the UK, where you can stream it from their website), you’ll want to check out the six-part series on Africa that began airing Wednesdays starting January 2nd. The first episode, somewhat broadly titled “Kalahari” features wildlife from Namibia, from tiny wasps and spiders to giraffes…
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Namibia’s “N/a’ankuse” Needs a Filmmaker
The N/a’an ku se charity lodge, wildlife-sanctuary-and-a-whole-bunch-of-other-stuff is looking for a filmmaker. It’s not a high-paying job, but it’s a good cause and a great opportunity to hang out in Namibia and take pictures of cool stuff. The organization occupies a large piece of land just east of Namibia’s capital Windhoek, where a number of…
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Destination Namibia: How do you Market a Country?
I remember talking to one of Namibia’s tourism officials shortly after they had returned from the 2011 Adventure Travel World Summit in Chiapas, Mexico, and he was pretty excited about Namibia’s prospects in hosting the 2013 summit, knowing it would be the first time the event would be hosted in Africa. At the time, he…
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Tired of Shelling Out Ten Grand to Sing “Happy Birthday”?
What’s that? You’re not paying Time Warner, the copyright holder, for the rights to sing “Happy Birthday to You” in a public place? You could be opening yourself up to a lawsuit! That’s apparently what they charge. It’s probably just enough to earn a coupla million a year, but not quite enough to prompt a…
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Flickr Makes its Move
Over the last month, there’s been some interesting maneuvering going on in the photo-sharing community. Specifically, once-dominant Flickr, which had been stagnating in comparison to its made-for-smartphone rival, Instagram, has made a couple of moves likely to put it back into a dominant position in its genre. First was the release of Flickr’s new app,…
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Sunsets: the impact of cropping and zooming
I never tire of these Windhoek sunsets during the “rainy season”. But I’m always amazed by how much of a difference cropping and zooming make on sunset photography. These are three photos taken in succession of the same sunset, with the same camera settings (OK, roughly), but zoomed. The point is, when you’re photographing a…