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Many years ago my sister in law played a video I made for her for a family that lived close by. They liked it so much they called and asked me if I would make a video for them. They had 5 hours of video and it was their first time using a video camera. I didn't have much hope but they used the same video camera I was using at the time. I agreed to take a look and see if I could get something out of the videos. I've always enjoyed making something out of other peoples videos. I still do it once in a while for friends. In the end I made a one hour video out of 5 hours. I always try to move people one way or the other. The videos need direction and I like to draw a bit of emotion if I can. The music is most important. I forgot to mention that the videos they sent were from their trip to Africa. I asked that after viewing the video, they would call me and give me a review. I got the call. The gal on the phone said everyone was crying. I've never heard from them since but I got the response I wanted. The one thing that gets me about these African tours is the hot air balloon rides. They are so arrogant and thoughtless as they are harming the animals they have come to admire. The balloons need cool air and that air is in the morning. When the animals hear the horrible sound the gas release makes they run for their lives. Then the rest of the day they need to find water and get a drink and then eat what little food they can find but they're already tired from running from a creature they don't understand. And that is when the predators chase them. On top of the arrogance of flying around scaring the creatures below the folks then land in a flat open area where the landing crew has set of a huge table where the pompous folks sit and are served champagne and fine food and chat with the others at the table. What an ignorant disgrace. Keep in mind in the early 2000s video was still 720x480 so not nearly what folks have today. I have upped the video a bit and then shrunk the screen so it looks fairly sharp. I only put in a few bits.

Many years ago my sister in law played a video I made for her for a family that lived close by. They liked it so much they called and asked me if I would make a video for them. They had 5 hours of video and it was their first time using a video camera. I didn't have much hope but they used the same video camera I was using at the time. I agreed to take a look and see if I could get something out of the videos. I've always enjoyed making something out of other peoples videos. I still do it once in a while for friends. In the end I made a one hour video out of 5 hours. I always try to move people one way or the other. The videos need direction and I like to draw a bit of emotion if I can. The music is most important. I forgot to mention that the videos they sent were from their trip to Africa. I asked that after viewing the video, they would call me and give me a review. I got the call. The gal on the phone said everyone was crying. I've never heard from them since but I got the response I wanted. The one thing that gets me about these African tours is the hot air balloon rides. They are so arrogant and thoughtless as they are harming the animals they have come to admire. The balloons need cool air and that air is in the morning. When the animals hear the horrible sound the gas release makes they run for their lives. Then the rest of the day they need to find water and get a drink and then eat what little food they can find but they're already tired from running from a creature they don't understand. And that is when the predators chase them. On top of the arrogance of flying around scaring the creatures below the folks then land in a flat open area where the landing crew has set of a huge table where the pompous folks sit and are served champagne and fine food and chat with the others at the table. What an ignorant disgrace. Keep in mind in the early 2000s video was still 720x480 so not nearly what folks have today. I have upped the video a bit and then shrunk the screen so it looks fairly sharp. I only put in a few bits.

This one needs explaining. While exploring the Mojave desert a storm was brewing. As I got ready to head home the storm was on my back. While driving east from Kingman, AZ I was stopped by state police as the nearly 150 miles or so was uphill all the way to Flagstaff and it was snowing and I-40 was closed ahead. I found a nice place to park where I could see the freeway and notice when it opened again. I wasn't too far from Kingman so I knew I could go back to town if need be. Within a couple hours the freeway was open again. This proved to be a big mistake. About 20 miles from Flagstaff the road was so full of snow that traffic was stopped. I was between 18 wheelers. There were a lot of them on the highway and I had noticed they were flying down the highway like nothing was wrong. I was in 4-wheel drive and going 45 MPH in the slow lane. One of the truck drivers informed me that 6 trucks, big ones, had crashed ahead. So it wasn't the snow after all. The music works nicely with the traffic and train videos. It was the coldest night I ever spent on the road. It was March, 2012.

See PC file

Most folks go to some resort where they are pampered for their honeymoon. We took two weeks with our two dogs and roamed the mountains of Colorado. It was a great time in our lives. Karen and I started dating when I was already 40 years old. No time to waste. I used a clip from the first day of our holiday to start but video was poor in those days so the show moves to photos quickly. Even though the video is poor it's enjoyable to me to see our dogs and the snow melt alive once more.

See PC file for info.

The title for this file is 1994 but it is actually 1995. One of the things PTE can do, many programs can do this with still images, is recognize the black area of the image as nothing. Most programs scan motion images as all the same whether they have blank spot or not. PTE can shrink a video by putting a letter box around the video. PTE has long been my go to program for shrinking video. This video of over 3 minutes is just 37megs. The video is one of my favorites and this is one of my favorite video openings. I hope you like it though its kind of small.

Another oldy from the past. Part 1

Another short video from the past. I realize I had always deleted my video from the past and nothing is in the archives. I plan t to jump around and show some different stuff from long ago and I now can shrink some video files from the past and get a bit of continuity to some old stuff.

Filmed in the Onion Creek and Fisher Tower area of Utah. A word about the music. It is taken from a piece of nearly 15 minutes. I heard it for the first time when I was in the New Mexico Symphony in the mid 70s. It's a string piece so I wasn't needed as I was the Timpanist. I was sitting backstage in the darkness right behind the shell that projected the sound. As I listened I began to weep. I believe music is the most honest form of art. It has a beginning and end and then it's gone. Imagine before recordings when you could only hear it when an orchestra played it. And when you hear it, no words, to singing, no speaking, just sound. And it can move you so deeply. I hope this video with sound can move you too.

A drone flight over Onion Creek to Fisher Towers.

The crazier part of the trail.

The easy part of the trail in Canyonlands NP.

A short video of a morning in February

A short video from earlier this year.