Dave Stiles

Thanks for the helpful critque Jon. Yes, I was alone in the park, using a spotting scope to shoot 1/4 of a mile away, so as not to disturb the den site and bring on the wraith of the Rangers and the associated fines for violating park policies. This was completed as an assignment in animal behavior for my wildlife biology program as extra credit. There was no way to include wider shots as the lens on the palmcorder was cracked and at that point I could not replace the camcorder in the field. Hence its use as a recording deck only. In the National park system if there are more than 2 people involved in shooting the scene, whatever their role, there is a daily fee to be obtaining video. Last I knew it was $100 per day, whether footage is obtained or not. I'll be returning to the same site this spring with an XL2 and will take your critique and comments into account. The next version shouldn't be as boring ... and yes, I'll be shooting alone again. Thanks

Here's my first attempt at a wildlife video. Its short and sweet as I am limited to under four minutes of project time for class. I used footage I took while in Yellowstone, which was shot through a Nikon Spotting scope using a Nikon ccd eyepiece replacement and a Canon ZR75 palmcorder as a recording deck. No audio was captured in the field and the distance to the den site was approximately 1/4 of a mile, shooting across the main roadway. It was saved as a quicktime file and has been loaded on my college website. http://academic.evergreen.edu/s/stidav22/Q...lCoyotePups.mov Any and all feedback is appreciated.

Greetings all, I'm new to the forum here. I'm currently studying videography in college (MediaWorks at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA), with a tendancy towards wildlife work. My year-long chosen project will be on the wildlife of Yellowstone and its surrounding ecosystem. I am somewhat comfortable on the video end of things, but brand new to the audio end. For recording I will be using a Marantz PMD671 and, after returning from the field, attempting to sync the audio to the video, using Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro on one of my Mac G4 computers. For now I have settled on an AT835b for an entry level shotgun microphone, but don't have the slightest idea what to purchase in order to do the commentary "voiceover" once the video and field audio have been finished. Any recommendations for a decent "voiceover" microphone? My budget allows for up to $300, unless I take longer to acquire equipment ... if possible I would also like to use the same microphone for capturing ambient sound in the field. And even better would be if the microphones could also be used on my Canon XL2 camcorder, as both it and the Marantz PMD671 both have and use XLR mounts. Both can provide 48v phantom power. Thanks for the help. Dave Stiles ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~ Dave's Wildlife Photography Website http://academic.evergreen.edu/s/stidav22/ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~