Monday, April 12, 2010

Daisy Reflections "Movie"





What a thrill to have this latest endeavor finished! Compete! Uploaded! YouTube'd! I will forever refer to this one as my "what-I-did-during-my recovery-from-surgery-to-keep-my-sanity project." This is my first, ever 'Movie-Maker-Video' and I am delighted with the outcome. It turns out that I am somewhat trainable, after all.

As some of you long-time readers will remember, I became besotted with photographing daisies last summer -- particularly so from underneath, below the petals. I rode my bike back & forth across the Door County Penninsula in search of patches of my beloved simplekins and got better at the contortions needed to capture their images. I just kept taking the photos for my own amusement and they began to amass over the season.

Then Suzanne, the editor of the new BC site, LOOP complimented me on my growing photo skills and suggested that I consider submitting some of my images to her site on their artistic merit. I was flabbergasted. That got me to thinking. "How could I ever choose one favorite daisy from my unbelievable collection?? Wouldn't it be cool to have an entire daisy movie?"

As luck would have it, I had some "down-time" on my hands following my winter surgery, when my wits and energy level were both a little thin. Shortly after we had arrived in FL for my needed R&R (recovery & renewal) along came Allen's brother, Ron, stopping through on his trip north. Ron had created dozens of videos using this program to document his various travels....... so I had a tutor to shorten my learning curve dramatically. He showed me all sorts of short-cuts and explained all sorts of concepts I would have discovered in the next several light years of dinkin' around on my own. Whooohoooo.

So I began in January to upload images from my collection. Then came the putting together part. Initially I had a 12 minute outline of photos to be used. In speaking to my editor, she felt that the average web-cruiser was not likely to invest a 12 minute chunk of time. So I forced myself to edit and edit some more.

Then one day I had the stroke of insight to recognize what an addition it would be to the images to have an instrumental from Noelle & her oboe, as a backdrop. That required some discussion with her and explanation of what I had up my sleeve. We settled on a piece that she had already recorded. Then there was further technologial experimentation to convert music files yada-yada, but fortunatly I'm married to a techie and so is she....... and suddenly there was music. Just over four minutes worth of music. (Happy news to my editor.)

Then it was time to put my tricks of transitions and effects to work. I had even learned how to add text, credits and the like -- all in my one evening tutorial. The little engiene that could kept trucking. I showed it to my parents in several different edits. Then one day I went to open the file and the whole entire thing had 'vaporized.' Allen spent the entire evening with all sorts of various programs in search of the missing files, but alas they were really gone. Heart-break. I literally cried. I talked over the whole process and progress with "Saint" in our daily phone conversations, so she took the brunt of my many emotions over the vaporization. ARRRRRGGGGGGH!!!!%**%*&$%^*!!!!

After a couple of days of woe-is-me, I started over, from scratch and began again. I must say that the second time around did indeed go much faster. I had truly learned a few things in the first several iterations.

This effort has been a labor-of-love from the very beginning. It gave me a creative focus for those hours of stillness my body required. When I think back over the various frustrations, the major set-back and all the learning that's taken place in under three months I can smile the smile of exhaling. It is done.

Of course as you may have guessed, I dedicated the whole venture to my dear friend Saint-Pat. She was there when I took some of the pictures, she was there when the light-bulbs flashed, she was there when the whole thing crashed, she was there with her solace and with her conspiratorial questions which each urged me forward. She was a lover of flowers. She was a lover of photography. She was a lover of classical music. She was a lover of art. I know that she would be proud that the mission has been completed.

The first responses by other viewers have been very supportive. Now. What do I do with it? Hmmmmmmmm. To be determined. My one brain-storm is that I could burn some hard-copies and make them available at my conferences. Donations would then be donated to BCO in Saint's name. It's about 1000 times better on our TV, thru it's speaker system, than thru my laptop. Time will tell.

*****Oh. yeah. Here's the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KMMWvMVTko&feature=autofb

2 comments:

  1. Now you know you should have embedded that link into your blog:)

    I love the video - it was lovely to sit back and relax to the beautiful sound of the oboe and the soothing daisy photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. Deborah. It's so good to be able to share this effort with others. I'm grateful that you took the time to view it!!

    ReplyDelete

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