Futzin' Around

Took the Gopro out for a test video yesterday. Great day on the water, a clear, bright Thanksgiving solo. Had the camera mounted on my head strap again. This time, I stopped several times and took off my hat to check that the camera was on and recording at the setting I intended. So far so good. (If I get the Wifi remote control, that shouldn't be a problem anymore.)

Even though 1.5 hours of somebody silently paddling isn't exactly Hollywood (nor Bollywood), I did have some nice moments - so I thought. Several shots of ducks and other waterfowl taking off in flocks from the water, which is always a funny and interesting scene.

Unfortunately, lens was fogged again AND for about half the trip the headband and hat were not on quite right, which I didn't realize. So the best shots with the birds all ended up unusable, because the camera was pointing up at the sky. All you hear is flapping wings and me quacking at the ducks; all you see is sky. (If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably me!)

Alfred Hitchcock is laughing his ass off!

Also, as I'd been warned by friends, the head strap mount moves with your head. So I figured that I would keep from moving my head abruptly from side to side and pan slowly when I do. I kept my head pretty steady. So I thought. And I would be right, except that when you paddle you move your whole torso to and fro, which also means that the camera is tilting left and right too. How would a chest mount stop that? Probably no better. So I'm going to have to wait for a Gopro suction cup mount for the kayak hull, but I'm not sure it won't produce the same silly effect. Well, I suppose that's what I actually see when I'm paddling, were I paying attention that way, so can't be all bad. I've seen my friend's videos without this movement, so have to figure out how he did that on his kayak.

I'm also trying to use the Gopro native video converter and editor, which I'm finding is not well instructed and very very slow to process. OK, so miles of video take time, I get that part, but this is painfully slow!

Sooner or later I'm going to get this right. Then you'll be treated to short clips from hours of edited boring home movies. But they'll be MY home movies. Can you see me up in Bodega Bay filiming?

Eat your heart out Alfred....

The best laid plans of mice and men.....

Gang oft agley! (Thank you Robbie Burns.)

We had only 4 of us (out of an original 14, 10 bailed thinking the weather would be bad, which it wasn't at all) at RWC Harbor today. Really strong headwind slowed us down to half speed, so by the time we got to Corkscrew Slough, it was already too late. Tide was shooting out and that's too shallow.

 

In fact, I got caught on a sandbar for a while going back through Steinberger Slough! That was a heart stopper as it's all mud there if you do get caught. I had visions of spending the 12 hours there awaiting the high tide. Damn glad to power off the bar (thank you Big Al).

 

But we had a great time, because the weather was clear. Lots of birds, but no mammals in sight.

So I made every single error you can make with the Gopro! Talk about amateur hour. And I did try to deal with it, but simply failed. Got the dreaded fogging. Somehow switched accidentally to burst mode instead of video, so used up 999 pix of nothing in no time! Couldn't see what was what or figure out how to know when the cam was on on the headstrap. And also on recc of youtube video angled the camera down a bit too far. So I got a lot of not so great shots for my troubles, and I had so been looking forward to taking good video. Ah well....

 

Go Go Gopro!

Broke down and finally bought a Gopro Hero HD. Not the latest model, which just came out, but 2 versions back. Got a good deal on ebay and just couldn't wait for holiday presents.

Now we'll see what pix I can take from the deck of Goldie.

You gotta be kiddin', right?

I had been trying out various GPS apps for my Droid smartphone. Each did something I wanted, but none had done all I wanted as yet. So on somebody's recommendatnion I downnloaded Endomundo for Android phones. Started it up today on my paddle and didn't know what to expect. So after a 10 second countdown audibly, I put out and paddled.

Gorgeous, warm, bright, sunny, clear and calm fall morning on the canals. Even the gibbous moon was still visible in the sky.

After a mile I hear a voice coming from below my armpit (where the cell phone is attached to my PFD) telling me my time, distance and that I'm "on target". That was funny, because I never set a target that I could recall. How did she know? LOL

I was certainly startled, as I'd seen not a single human being and it had just been me and the ducks.

At two miles she piped up to tell me the same thing. Same me, only less startled to hear my armpit talking.

However, after stopping to rest and restarting, at 4 miles she started to bitch that I was getting behind target! Shit, I go kayaking to get away from people telling me what to do at work and at home....

Since I had to pull out the phone to answer my wife's call at 5 miles, I figured out how to stop the app from running.

When I got home I discovered that it has several settings built in for "nagging" you. Not my style! If I wanted boot camp, I'd have joined the army.

Next up is a used Gopro Hero HD (model 1) that I ordered on ebay. Hope that works well for pix/video without nagging me!