This morning while drinking my coffee I read interesting article on the Huffington Post site about how humans are close to killing off two-thirds of the wildlife on the planet within the next fifty years. Kind of a depressing way to start my morning, but still an interesting read. Then this afternoon while cruising around on Vimeo I came across the video below, which is kind of a depressing way to end the afternoon. None the less it is a beautiful animated short for the WWF and it ties directly to what I read this morning. Produced by Zombie Studio “Dream” was featured in the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, showing four animals that are facing extinction. They tell their stories through the words of “I Dreamed a Dream” a song you might recognize from the musical Les Misérables. The animation and styling of the short has a great look and feel to it, and while at times it can get a little heavy-handed, the message is still very powerful. If you have a large monitor and a powerful enough system, run it full screen or watch it on your large TV.
Nature
Creative Renewal
One of the great things about taking the annual photo weekend trip to Colorado is not just spending time with good friends, but also having the opportunity to focus on being creative for me. On the drive out to Estes we stopped at Monument Rocks about 20 miles from Oakley Kansas to get some sunrise shots of the rock formations that grow out of the Kansas Prairie unlike anything else in the state. These were shot with the Olympus OMD EM-1 Taking full advantage of the world-class image stabilization built into the camera. Tonight some experiments with “Live Composite” mode for night time shooting… provided the clouds hold off and we can see the night sky.
“Made to be Seen”. in 4K Resolution.
Joel Schat is a videographer that works for acompany called Roadtrippers.com that has given him the opportunity to travel and film nature at it’s finest. The five minute video below is his demo reel of 4K footage that he has shot over the last two years. The footage is absolutely breathtaking, and if you can watch it on the biggest screen possible with the sound turned up. For more info on the film, click through to Vimeo where there is more info and links to his other sites.
A Little Bit of Mountain Magic.
Sometimes you get a little bit of unexpected magic. Today I went on a 6 mile round trip hike to Fern Falls in the Rocky Mountain National park. Most of the day mother nature spit on us with light rain and sleet. By the time we got to the falls it had stopped, but then the sky opened up with a dense snowfall that last for about 30 minutes. Images and video can’t capture just how beautiful it was, but I tried. As we started walking back down the mountain the snow lifted, the sun came out, and the weather in Colorado changed yet again.
Modular 4 