On the 25th, once again one week from the last taping, I changed my project around a little. I still kept the same shots, but I moved the waterdish to the other side of the mat (the plants are starting to get too large to set everything the way they were before), moved the project itself a little bit forward and started taping in the morning again - the way I work, it would be a lot more convenient to set the whole thing up in the morning instead of the night - then I could try more things during the week than just 2 tapings a week - it kind of kills the whole scientific basis who’s-coming-thing if you can only set shots up once or twice a week. Well, the morning crew didn’t disappoint either, as I guess the dynamic of the best time was starting to change - earlier in the month, morning tapings didn’t really work, and now night tapings aren’t doing as well. A few more nice closeups, lit a little differently in the daytime are here, as well as proof that the morning is now where it’s at as the best time for trying these setups!
BFP 4-25-05 (Demo) [0:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup BFP 4-25-05 (High Quality 800Kbps Version) [6:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup BFP 4-25-05 (Low Quality 300Kbps Version) [6:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup
One week after the tapings of the 11th and 12th, I tried my project at night again… I was working the entire week before then, so this was the next real chance I had to setup and try to get some shots - and it’s technicially same as the 12th’s taping, same angles and everything, same mic placement, and the project itself is the same… although I did manage to get a few more nice closeups (and the squirrels found a little more of the food that I hid in the mat of course) -
The main reason I included this video in the collection is because of the closeups I got (mainly in the beginning) and the squirrel profile shots… I changed the setup slightly (I moved the $10 camera to a tripod so that the Squirrel Critic couldn’t switch angles on me again…) and I got a shot or 2 of a robin that passed by… This day isn’t one of the most exciting days (nights, actually - I found that the best time for squirrel activity at this specific time of this specific year was night), but it’s still a pretty good day edit, and it shows off another angle for a shot (this time the 2nd angle was looking sideways instead of back towards the project) - it would be nice to do the whole “matrix” thing with my angles, but somehow I doubt that 2 cameras would work for that…
I wanted a better place to put everything, so I figured right at the base of the tree was a good place - it’s closer to where the squirrels come down anyway, and it’s a nice convenient place for the mic, which I now have a new stand for (yet another thing to see if the squirrels mind being around)… I got out the old camera stand that I’ve used for older recordings (it’s basicially a piece of wood with a long tripod-sized screw and spikes to hammer into the ground) and slapped the $10 camera on that, just to give me an alternate “behind” angle - well, not only didn’t the squirrels mind the mic stand, they didn’t mind the other camera being there, as one kept standing on top of it to check things out! Eventually (towards the middle of the video), the squirrel on top of the camera kicks it to the left and screws the shot up — you got to love it when squirrels critique your shots… Of course, the new shot isn’t really that bad either, because you can wach the squirrels running down the tree after it moved.
Along with the morning test of the mic on April 4th, I set the good camera (with the new mic) on a panhead to see if I could grab any shots of late-night squirrels foraging that would be interested in my project setup. Surprising to me, a squirrel (or squirrels) were interested in my project at night as much as in the morning enough to find the food that I stuck into the mat platform - my first night recording since March, and I’ve found that there’s usually one time of day that’s better than the other for squirrel activity - apparently this time of year, it didn’t matter!
Yet another mic test for my project! Only this time, it’s the cheaper shotgun (an Azden SGM-X) mic… It’s as good nats-wise (natural sound) as the Audio-Technica, and I don’t need a mixer to drive it! The only disadvantage is that the batteries “die in 100 hours” - a claim which I’ve found not to only be false, but to be much more useful than that (the last time I changed batteries in 2006 was before the