Re: Aiden, Jo, and anyone else interested in caves


" George" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> skrev i en meddelelse
news:RO2dne6AtJDeyOnZnZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Carsten Troelsgaard" <carsten.troelsgaardNOSPAM@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:447450d2$0$27572$edfadb0f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

" George1" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> skrev i en meddelelse
news:6oSdnRrwK7gnt-nZnZ2dnUVZ_uWdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Carsten Troelsgaard" <carsten.troelsgaardNOSPAM@xxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:44742073$0$27558$edfadb0f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"George" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> skrev i en meddelelse
news:RM6dnSmy3rDwUO7Z4p2dnA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I've posted a link to a site run by a friend of mine, Chris Anderson,
in the past (www.darklightimagery.net/). He's the guy I told you
about who took the outstanding pictures of Camps Gulf cave, in
Tennessee (and many others) that was featured in National Geographic
Magazine, the one with the largest cave chambers in the eastern U.S.

Chris and his group of merry cavers have been mapping the Webster Cave
Complex in Breckenridge County, Kentucky since I met him in college,
about 22 years ago. He has produced a short film about their efforts,
which includes many of the outstanding images he's taken of the cave
over the years. I was speechless when I first saw it. I've been in
the cave with him several times, and it is truly one of Kentucky's
secret treasures. This short film is worth the watch, and I encourage
anyone interested in caves to watch it at the link below, if you can.
It is a streamed video, so it helps if you have broadband, though it
may also work with a slower connection (although I make no
guarantees).

Enjoy,


George

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU9N-ApYYJU

Thanks George

You found me a repository. I've been shrinking my 'stuff' down to 16
min & 16 mb - the limit on youtube is 10 min (but filesize is no grave
limit), so I'll go back to Movie Maker.
I'm not sure weather I use flashplayer right, but as for the imagery of
your friend I miss the abillity to blow the pictures up.... I could
venture down those caves for the music alone thou!

Carsten


You're welcome. Are you making .avi files or .mpg files. Also, what
codec are you using. When making an .avi file, I usually use the divx
codec, because it is very configurable, and allows many frame sizes,
which affect the file size considerably. It also has presets that allow
you to choose parameters on the fly depending on your usage (high
resolution v. medium or low resolution). Another codec I use for .avi
files is xvid. I'm not used to using it so much, but I understand that
it makes a good video with a low file size.

Movie maker makes these considerations superflous for a casual user like
me, but I'll have to look into it at some time. One problem I cann't seem
to deal with is my expectations as to reduce file-size by ie discarding
any soundtrack. But the repository, and the max filesize (100 mb)/10 min
video obsoletes that question too.
I'm uploading as we speak. 8 minutes of a 30 mb file sampled at 520 kbps
(sorry Jo). The quality seems to provide a full screen picture where you
don't notice the pixelation. I'm not sure what my own connection will say
to these numbers - up- and download numbers for one's connection are
different, and the ip makes sure that you know the heaviest number though
that may not be the numbrer you need to know about - they catch me faster
than I care to learn about how to dodge this sort of confusion..

The stream I've video'ed is probably man-dug. I come to think of this as
I watch a broad floating stream narrow toward it's discharge into the
other (very straight and boring) channal carrying discharge from other
springs. There's no natural meandering, and I have a hard time believing
that the steep soil-walls/brinks would have survived 10.000 years of this
swift current - but it's a fish's heaven none-the-less, as far as I can
tell.

I hope that some of you will enjoy the bumpy ride.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=644OnBwIYbg

(I've watched a snip - I suppose that my connection down-samples cos' the
quality is not what I sent ;o(


Carsten

That is a very interesting video you've made, Carsten. The stream seems
very healthy, with lots of lush water plants and even some little
critters.

Last night I thought that I saw the web of some water-spiders, but I will
have to look careful to determine that. The web is like a trawler-bag. I
know that it exists as a late glacial relict in Lille Blåkilde (little blue
well, the largest of them all. That was the first spring we looked at)

I was wonder exactly how you made this video. I assume that you are
somehow floating the camera in some kind of transparent waterproof
container. Care to share your trade secrets?

Yes. The swim-suit is an acrylic box that enables me to even see the small
display of the video through the side of the box. That means that I'll have
to dip my head though, so though the idea was kind'a smart, it wasn't anyway
.... unless I can turn the camera & display round 90 degrees. There's a
remote controle that works through the thing, so I have a tolerable controle
on it. What sort of camera setting like shutterspeed and focus is determined
automatically - the ones of us that knows 'oldfashioned' cameras understand
to appreciate. The acrylic box is originally 3 mm thick, but I enforced it
by an extra layer. The lid is as simple as you can imagine (with a stepped
edge to match the outer and inner box) - without outside water pressure,
it's just greased and kept in place by a rubberband. I weight the box down
with a few small iron-bars - not enough to sink it, but it attains a stable
horizontal position in the water. I weighted the box to point slightly down
toward the bottom. Ofcourse I sank it the first time, and plenty of water
was inside the box - that experience almost turned me religious - a button
stopped working properly for a while, but that was all (that happened to the
camera. I'm still shaking).
I've got a string tied to the box and let the current do it's thing. I
recommend that anyone achtually guide this string with a fishingrod to get
the box into the stream and off the lush side-vegetation. The gearing
(swinging from side to side) in strong current and small general correction
of direction I controlled with a long stick. The oblonge box tend to
position itself across and not along the stream, so a lot of correction is
needed as the along-current imaging are preferred.
Except for also being an educated art-handworker used to photography and
doing handicraft, I'm a novice (it all achtually started out when I made a
parabola with a focal length of 25 cm, to improve acustic properties - it
failed to deliver, so I plummeted into the video-thing, buying my way out on
both image and sound)
I didn't read the poster next to the spring thoroughly. They put the
prohibiting words of no trespassing positioned as a text-explanation to a
map, so I missed it. But I did try to contact the owners of the field. They
weren't home though. I couldn't have shot the pictures without this 'happy'
flaw.
I noticed how sharp the pictures are, when the motives are lit by the sun -
next to the warmth it also brings, I'm waiting for the weather to improve to
go to my local marine estuary.

The video played fine, I have a fast connection, so it wasn't jerky. I
also assume that it had audio, but I didn't have my stereo on when I
watched it.

The soundtrack is not quite, but almost original ... trickling water and
bird-song

Carsten

There was some pixilation, and I'm thinking that that site might do some
compression of its video stream, which might explain why the resolution is
not as high as the original.

George



.