Seeking Michael's World

[LumenLux]

Old friends discover the lifestyle/territory of another friend. Includes beautiful scenery of southern Utah, USA. November 2008. 12 minute presentation. Title animation courtesy of "theDom".

Download here at Beechbrook

Making this presentation gave me cause to thank and compliment "theDom" and Igor! The opening title animation is a template shared by theDom a long time ago. At the time, I thought it was well done but not really what I would use. Sometimes things take a while to sink in. It came to mind while working on this sequence and I like it a lot - Thanks Dom.

As for Igor - Thanks again and again for this fine, fun software. This software allowed me to very quickly put this show together as a thank-you to our friend and host, Michael. A couple of hours of fun in the wee hours resulted in another friend "wowed" by what can be done by PTE. Not necessarily fancy animations, but the photo quality on large HD TV's now really can impact a new viewer.

Before posting this EXE file, I posted three video versions, ie Standard Definition, High Definition, Wide Screen. All of these created by Igor's new port-to-Vimeo. Again, Igor has done great things for us. However, when I came back to post this EXE version, I realized all over again, the quality of PTE as an EXE file just can not be beat. IMHO Thanks again.

Comments on this presentation are welcomed and encouraged.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Bob,

Beautiful scenes and photography. I quite agree - nothing yet rivals a good executable, though the HD, when played as MP4 with a resident system and not over a broadbeam converted to Flash, is getting closer.

I suspect on a number of the photos that a filter (polarizer?) or possibly sunshade with wrong position was responsible for the corner vignetting on wide angle frames? Otherwise a superb show revealing the beauty of the Utah mountains and truly God's country.

Best regards,

Lin

[cottage]

Bob,

Great presentation with rich colors, nice music and some incredible photography. Love the new hat as well. Did you retire your previous one ?

Bill

[LumenLux]

Bill - you ask such deep, searching questions! So here is the deep, focused answer. I know for sure about the old hat, but I am not sure which new hat you mean. If you are referring to the brim hat on the golf course - that is not me.(How do you like that studious/prayer photo though?) On this journey I am wearing a black "Nikon" ball cap, but I doubt you can recognize the Nikon in the pix I included. (Can you?) As for the old hat, which indeed has been with me for about 14 years (!), it is not fully retired but has been re-assigned as a dedicated hat for a specific mountain area where I keep it for use there. For hiking most everywhere else there is indeed a new, similar to the old, hat, but it did not get called into action for this civilized expedition which included the golf course. The new hat did get called into action today for our 49th annual Turkey Bowl football game. (But it was usually getting knocked off, as everybody else is younger, bigger, stronger, faster, . . .)

[cottage]

Bill ... On this journey I am wearing a black "Nikon" ball cap, but I doubt you can recognize the Nikon in the pix I included. (Can you?)

Oh you modest photographer you. With four separate images showing off that sharp black ball cap, even a one eyed toad could pick you out of a crowd. LOL

14 years is certainly getting your money's worth out of that infamous blue cap. May it live on to even greater adventures !

Bill

[LumenLux]

Hi Bob,

Beautiful scenes and photography. I quite agree - nothing yet rivals a good executable, though the HD, when played as MP4 with a resident system and not over a broadbeam converted to Flash, is getting closer.

I suspect on a number of the photos that a filter (polarizer?) or possibly sunshade with wrong position was responsible for the corner vignetting on wide angle frames? Otherwise a superb show revealing the beauty of the Utah mountains and truly God's country.

Best regards,

Lin

I had to apply my limited time to Bill's important question about the hat. But now I find time to tell you "the story" that relates to your observation. Yes, the vignetting on many frames is from a polarizer that is not sufficiently thin-rimmed. I would not normally allow the vignetting to appear in an AV or presented photo. But in this PTE I decided to try another approach. If you notice the first slide of the show - not only does the vignette appear, but a obvious bottom ring/edge of a neutral grad filter. Normally any photo's selected for PTE use, I would crop or clone to be rid of the edge intrusions. As this presentation was an impromptu and rush job one night, I thought I don't want to take the (little) time to clean the corners. And the first slide gave me the idea to make the show as if one were looking through a telescope or lens which would be consistent with my "theme" of "seeking" a view of my friend's life and surroundings. So I decided to leave all the corners as-is and see if anyone had any reaction. I also wanted to see what my own reaction would be after watching it a couple of times. I guess from your comment, any "purpose" I intended was either too subtle or just not the best idea. As for myself, rationalizing that the look was intentional, I accept or ignore what otherwise would be a constant annoyance and distraction from the photographs. So thank you very much for commenting.

I did try one other thing on this show that was a first for me. While taking the early-morning photos, wandering by myself, I listened to my MP3 player with the vague intent to find some tunes as candidates for any show I might make of the photos. I have never welcomed sound in my ears while photographing or even hiking, but this time it seemed worth a try. And thus the soundtrack was born.