h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Videos are going to get premiered here from now on, so as not to interrupt anybody else's flow. They'll also show up in the h2g2 Post eventually. We need Stuff, also to tweet. Twitter is an impatient medium. It eats up content the way Rod Serling said radio and television did.

Just FYI: I won't reply to comments that ignore the video content in favour of 'this is my favourite thing, look at my link.' I think that's fair. If you're not interested in the content, don't click. If you are interested in the content, but have nothing to say afterwards, don't worry. It's okay just to watch. I won't be offended if nobody says anything.

These are mostly either experiments, or critters frolicking in my backyard. Or both. Occasionally, it's something weirder, or Medium-to-Heavy Leslie. If this pandemic ever lets up, there might be pipe organ music again.

Today's video is called 'Half-Hidden from the Eye', which is a nod to Wordsworth. It features an American Robin or two, in slow motion, and some new-age music, not by me, which was free on the Youtube, and which I liked very much. (Don't worry: Heavy and Medium Leslie will be forthcoming soon: I've got another 60s book on order.)

Anyway, here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWMtnxB_FFw

BONUS VIDEO:

SashaQ's just made a great one. Called 'Thunderstorm'. That's better night videography than I've ever done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzLEqHxJI9U

Just wait, Sasha: I think the photo FWR sent me is from the same storm! It will appear in next week's Post.

kthxbai

Thanks for sharing DG and Sasha.

Your Robins seem to be enormous compared to ours. Nice music too.

Isn't it strange that lightning can look so different just a few miles away, I suppose it was overhead for you Sasha?

Thanks again both

Yeah, our 'robin' is a big ol' thrush with a bright orange front. There's an old song, 'When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbin' along.' He hops and bobs his head a lot because he's a bug- and worm-eater. He's looking for them in the grass.

They are unbelievably friendly birds, not shy at all. We used to have one in the summers in Pittsburgh when I was growing up. My dad would be watering the garden, and the robin would sit on his garden hose until he shook it a bit - it seemed to be a game. It nested in the crook of the drainpipe of our house one year - we kids watched the whole process in total fascination. We were delighted when the babies learned to fly - and then sad, because they flew away.

The next year, the robin was back - watching tv with us through the glass door of the den.

I gave Sasha a heads-up so you can get an answer later.

Just put a bug video on YouTube, live music too!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v85vgeDReAs

That is magnificent! When the music started, I laughed out loud.

I hope it's okay to post the link here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v85vgeDReAs

I'd have left a comment, but you had them turned off (a wise precaution). Also, I don't get notifications because (get this) 'notifications are turned off for kid content'. (My stuff is 'adult', like the Hooverville book. )

I'm stealing this for 6 July, if that's okay...

Seriously, you've gotta love bumblebees. They're so photogenic. Especially when you've got a photographer who gets right up their nostrils.

Oh, is the singer a friend of yours?

My daughter's band! Very proud dad.Bass player to the bees!

Nearly Paul McCartney's birthday too! ( I'll settle for having it on mine today!)Glad you liked it.

Wow - that is a good band! Great sound.

Is it your birthday today?

Oh wow, that is a superb video of the slow motion Robin - the music accompanies the movements perfectly

Glad you liked my video - thanks for the encouragement

I look forward to seeing your photo FWR Yes, the storm cloud went directly overhead, from east to west - scary, but impressive

Let it Bee is brilliant! Great photos, and perfect soundtrack!

The ongoing film festival is getting off to a good start!

I'm interested in learning more about video editing. Right now I'm using the simple editor that comes with Windows 10.

If you have been making videos for a while, what tools have been useful in producing interesting video effects? Are you starting with a Windows or an Apple operating system? 'What video editor(s) are you using? What do you like about it?
'
Helpful hints apreciated.

What editor comes with Windows 10? I've got 8, and that's what I'm using - MovieMaker. It won't do anything too fancy - it doesn't produce those nice titles Sasha has - but I'm happy with it. I wish it had a few more 'special effects'.

I do like having the ability to change speeds on the video - slow motion and faster. In fact, I did one last night just as an experiment that I think worked out with sped-up cloud segments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ybZaqCnwfY

I know one video I did was of my hands playing the piano. When I played it back, I thought the song was too slow, so I sped it up 1.5 times - it worked fine.

Windows 10 comes with a program or app called Video Editor. I see that Movie Maker is a free download from Microsoft...

When you took the 1930s San Fransisco traffic scene and made it into a cartoon was that Movie Maker?... How about the weird sparkly piano hands?

Yep, that's all Movie Maker.

I was amazed to find movie maker has an audio only function yesterday! All those years of fiddling around trying to convert files to mp3... That dates it!

I did get a decent movie suite with our last digi cam but you need a degree in astrophysics to understand the thing.

I didn't know about this 'audio only' function. In fact, I still don't. Must check this out....

Whwn you hit save movie as... Scroll right to bottom of pop up menu and you can save as converted mpeg cool eh!

Who knew? Thanks so much! That will be really useful in case our church tech needs more soundfiles!

Also, I can take the video and make it into an audio track to go with other footage.

I used to love MovieMaker - I found it a good balance between fancy and easy to use. I have Adobe Premiere Elements now - it is very difficult to use to get the special effects DG can produce at the touch of a button, but it does have some other nifty tools that are easy to use. I'm learning - getting better the more I practise with it