Pixiq

I have been very excited about shooting video with my DSLR cameras. It is really cool to see nature come to life. I still love still photography, but when I see critters moving, breathing, being alive, when I see leaves blowing, water rushing, landscapes coming alive, this is such a whole new experience. 

Last week I was in Florida at the FotoFusion event sponsored by Palm Beach Photographic Centre in West Palm Beach. I was doing a program on simple video editing using Adobe Premiere Elements. This is a very accessible and affordable program that still has a lot of power and flexibility for working with video.

I wanted to be able to show how a simple video could be put together so I went out to the Wakodahatchee water reclamation site outside of Del Rey Beach. This location has a boardwalk going through a marsh that is very attractive to water birds. When I was there, it was very noisy from wind and people on the boardwalk, so I could not get very good audio. But I got some fun shots of the life there and put it together in a short video with music (and only occasional natural sound). This video is below.

This type of video is pretty easy to put together and can be a lot of fun. It really does bring nature to life in a different way than still photos. This type of video is probably best when shorter than two minutes (which this is). There is no story or narration to carry it further, so it is like a visual essay, but most folks get tired of watching such a video after about two minutes (especially on the web).

My new book, co-written with Michael Guncheon, is about shooting video with a DSLR,The Digital Photographer's Complete Guide to Shooting HD Video, and is now available. I will also be doing more workshops on shooting video, including one coming up at the end of February at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre.

The video was shot with a Canon EOS 60D. The still photos come from the video, too.