Dempster Highway

[alrobin]

I finally found time to put together a show for public viewing - it is called "Dempster Highway" and can be seen on Beechbrook until Bill runs out of space and dumps it off.

It was put together in PTE version 4.10, beta #8. So, it's a bit of a test - plese let me know of any problems in running it on your pc (and I'll just pass them on to Igor ).

I have hesitated creating a show for Beechbrook until now as I didn't have any royalty-free music. While the music used in the show isn't technically completely royalty-free, the source files were MIDI which I modified some, and then converted to .wav and then to .mp3 format using Cool Edit 2000. Hope this satisfies the copyright police!

The images are 1024 x 768, so there may be some flicker in some of the fades, particularly on slower machines. They were photographed using Nikon equipment and Fujichrome film, and then scanned.

The trip was a long-time dream of ours, and we were happy to be able to finally do it. And to accomplish it without any mishaps worse than the urgent necessity for an expensive brake-job at the end of the trip.

Please let me know if you would like any more information, either on the technology or the trip itself. Hope you enjoy it!

[LumenLux]

Well done friend! It is nice to see you put some of your extensive travel out where more of us can enjoy it.

Nice photgraphy. I especially enjoyed the snow-dusted photos. Those early snows really ring realistic to me. I have a hike planned in the Tetons in the first week in September. Your show spooks me a little in that regard. But photographically, I really like your shots. Now, on some of the non-snow mountains you recorded, the photos seemed not very color saturated. Was that the light at time of shooting or did you digitally fiddle them for effect and mood? I also like your botanical closeups.

I think your show evidences your savy of PTE in a way that serves your nice photography. I think your midi turned mp3 tracks also work quite well. I have toyed with doing that but have not yet. Personally I like the two latter tracks better than the first.

I am wondering about the trip itself (thanks for the introductory text in the zip). How many driving miles did the journey require? Regarding wildlife - did you see much more than you included in this show?

Thanks again for shareing.

[alrobin]

Thanks, Bob, for your kind words. The show doesn't do justice to the area (it never could), but this is the way I remember the trip - a mix of breathtaking scenery, exciting adventure, and enjoyable times with good friends.

I'm not 100% happy with it, but I worked on it to the point where I had to declare a cutoff and just put it up for people to see. We had a mix of good and bad weather, and some of the bad weather came when we were among the mountains decked with fall colours, so they do appear a bit drab. Disappointing, but c'est la vie! Reason for a second trip! I did manipulate two or three of the images for effect, to better portray the play of light on the hillsides. The sign near the beginning of the show was the only other digitally-manipulated image.

I'm amazed at the skill of the authors of some of the other shows presently posted on Beechbrook in creating special effects - some of them are very effective. I didn't play around with fancy borders, and frames within frames, etc., in this show, but maybe in a future one. I have mixed feelings about some of the "gimmicks" used, but they're OK if done tastefully and if they add to the images. I've always felt that the images should speak for themselves, but then everyone's tastes are different. I could have used some of the other transitions to some advantage in a couple of places, I guess, but I prefer to keep these limited to very few in number. Give me a good dissolve and I'm quite happy.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife - the highlight was the start of the caribou migration at the border between the Yukon and the NWT, but we were there a little too early to see the main herd. And, we kept a lookout for grizzly bears, but didn't spot any. In one of the campgrounds we were advised to be careful as one had been spotted earlier, but we didn't see it.

The highway from Dawson to Inuvik is about 700 km. in length. All together, from Ottawa and back, we put on about 12,000 km., including a short tour through Alaska.

[think(box)]

Also a nice show! I too like the mix of landscape and botanicals. And the ice coatings and crystals were real cool (sorry ). That sign with the arrow that jumps off the signboard was a nice touch! How did you manage to hold the camera so still after it jumped - before that second shot? I know, it must have been from a tripod

[OGL]

Hello, Al.

I download "Dempster Highway". It is nice slideshow. Quality of JPG compression is very well, my congratulation to you!

plese let me know of any problems in running it on your pc

The images are 1024 x 768, so there may be some flicker in some of the fades, particularly on slower machines.

-On my "work horse" ( P4-1.7GHz, 0.5Gb RAM, Video: GeForce2-400 64Mb, Sound: Creative Live 5!, Win2000ProRus). No problems.

-On my old PC ( AMD k6-2 500MHz, 256Mb RAM, GeForce200 16Mb, AWE64, WinMe) 90% errors , but it is "classical" problem of AMD k6-2 + ALI mainboard.

I have done several experiments on machines of my friends.

Results:

- 486 DX2-66MHz 32Mb RAM, 3D Trio, Ess1860,Win98. Not work.

- P100, 32Mb RAM, RIVA TNT 8Mb, AWE64, Win98. ~80% errors.

- P2-233MHz, 128Mb RAM, GeForce200 32Mb, Creative SB16, WinMe. ~15 frames is bad.

- P3-700MHz, 256Mb RAM, GeForce3 Ti200 64Mb, Creative Audiqy2, WinXP ProRus. No problems.

Thanks you for your nice slideshow!

Regards,

Oleg

[alrobin]

Thanks very much, Oleg, for your comments and the feedback.

I think the main problem with the older pc's is the size of the images. There are six images over 200 k: 280k, 268k, 233k, 229k, 220k, and 212k. Seven other images are over 150 k. 22 others are over 100 k. The rest, 71 in all, are under 100 k.

I kept the times between most transitions greater than 1 second, because of the large image sizes, but I guess that still wasn't good enough. Only 12 of the transitions are less than 1 second apart, though, and all of these are over 1/2 sec apart. The show played on my limited Win 2000 system, so I thought I was OK on size. I'll know better next time.

Thanks again for your analysis!

[mev]

Al,

Thanks for posting your slideshow of the Dempster Highway. I'll add my comments about a well done slideshow with nice mixture of landscapes and then also fine details. It seems to flow well back and forth.

The Dempster is a neat road to travel. After seeing your slides, I put together a few of my pictures from a trip in 1997 into: www.mevn.com/Dempter.exe, not as carefully done, but you can see some other images from the same region.

--mev

[alrobin]

Mev,

Thanks so much for posting that - a lot of those images look very familiar! Thanks for your kind compliments, too.

Don't tell me you did that whole trip by bike! Wow! I take my hat off to you!!!

We saw some people doing it on bikes in the driving rain, on the muddiest part of the highway, and they did not look like happy campers at all!

How long did it take you? I see you also took the day flight to Tuk. That's an interesting place, too.

[alrobin]

How did you manage to hold the camera so still after it jumped - before that second shot? I know, it must have been from a tripod

Hi, Bill,

Sorry I didn't reply earlier - got carried away with "captions" I guess!

Thanks for the comments - glad you caught the meaning of my licence plate - not many people get it, even other photographers!

[mev]

Al,

Yes, I rode the Dempster by bicycle. I flew into Dawson City airport, on the DC-3 shown in first photo and flew out of Inuvik (on a 737). This is why I thought it was fun to see your images of the similar places. It looks like you did some hiking I hadn't, and had the fall temperatures/colours.

I had one day of rain and mud. On that day, I was traveling between Richardson range and Fort McPherson. On that day, I got a ride between km 58 and Fort McPherson due to the mud. Otherwise I bicycled in five and a half days; three to Eagle Plains and two and a half from there. I can sympathize with the unhappy cyclists you met as the mud sticks to everything including fenders and stops up wheels. On my rainy day I resisted for as long as I could but eventually took a ride from a pickup truck.

Did you get eaten alive by mosquitos or was it cold enough to frost them out? I had mosquitos but generally could travel faster them them. I think it would be tougher in a van/camper when they get into vents and just buzz around. At Tuk I was told there were once counted 76 species...

--mev, Mike Vermeulen