WA State Marine Parks video - San Juan Islands

Moonfish · Oct 23, 2012

Hi all -

We just finished shooting principal video for our Washington State Parks Video Cruising Guides for the San Juan Islands. Now for a few weeks of solid editing! But in the meantime, we took a selection of scenes of put them to music to give you a glimpse of what you can expect to see:

WA STate Marine Parks San Juan Islands

We'll be creating individual cruising guides for each park, and for Stuart and Sucia Island, videos for each bay/harbor. All videos will be posted online for free. We'll then create a full featured DVD with bonus materials that will be available for purchase - just in time for the holidays we hope! A portion of the proceeds will go back to support the park system, which has been severely affected by all the budget shortfalls and cuts.

Marin · Oct 23, 2012

Very nice footage. What are you shooting with? (I'm a video producer for Boeing and former commercial cinematographer/videographer so am always interested in what people are using to get nice looking footage like this.)

Moonstruck · Oct 23, 2012

Darren, thanks for the pleasant interlude. It's great to see that the PNW is not at all like Marin portrays it to be.

It even makes me want to leave the warm sunshine for awhile.

SomeSailor · Oct 23, 2012

Nice video Darren.

Makes me wanna start making plans for next year already.

Thanks!

Moonfish · Oct 23, 2012

Thank you, Marin. I'm using a first generation Sony PMW-EX1. Been pretty happy with the images, though we've had to send it back to Sony twice for repairs. Not too bad, I guess, as the camera is from 2008 and has been to Tonga, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Mexico, all over this country... and always in a saltwater/sailing environment. So it's been a good workhorse. Also, as you may have surmised, I'm using a GoPro for flybridge mounted shots.

And thank you Moonstruck and SomeSailor. We watch some of these scenes and can't wait to get back up there again! We'll take a few trips this winter.

Marin · Oct 23, 2012

The GoPro is a neat little camera to play with. We've mounted ours on the end of a helicopter blade looking back at the helicopter, I've set it on the center line of airport gates so the nosewheel of an incoming plane comes right up and stops just a foot or two from it, we've mounted it on a piece of "luggage" and sent it through an airport's entire luggage transport system, we've mounted it on an aircraft fuselage that was being "flown" through the Everett plant on the overhead cranes, on top of a fuselage that was going by train from Wichita to Renton, and we've put it inside a five-axis NC machine and had it "machined" by various bits and tools that were picked up and came up to it. It's amazing the thing hasn't been destroyed yet.

Our primary cameras are four Panasonic DVCpro HDX 900 (digital tape) and two new HDX-2000 P2 (cards). We just got a new Canon 5D with a range of lenses and a video viewfinder for shallow depth of field video work. The image quality from that is simply amazing.

Delfin · Oct 23, 2012

Very nice, Darren. We are very lucky in the PNW to have these marine state parks at our disposal. Our favorite time to visit many are in the winter, when you will generally find yourself almost all alone in the anchorage or at the docks, when available.

windmist · Oct 23, 2012

Amazing video Darren. I recognize most of those scenes but when I've been there it has always been raining and blowing about 20 knots but you where able to get all those scenes in sunshine. Truly amazing. I'm thinking you did all this on August 6th and August 21st. I beleive these where the only 2 days when it didn't rain this year. :angel:

Ron

dwhatty · Oct 23, 2012

windmist said:
Amazing video Darren. I recognize most of those scenes but when I've been there it has always been raining and blowing about 20 knots but you where able to get all those scenes in sunshine. Truly amazing. I'm thinking you did all this on August 6th and August 21st. I beleive these where the only 2 days when it didn't rain this year.

Ron

You and Marin. Trying to keep us all away. :lol:

"Out on the road, we tell all the turkeys
Yes it's always raining and the sun never shines
But all the natives know when the mountain lifts her skirts
The view from home will flat-out melt your mind."

Bryan Bowers "View From Home"

Boydster · Oct 23, 2012

Darren, Marin - One of our set decorators at work is getting a small business off the ground (pardon the pun) using Go-Pros as well as other higher end equipment along with quad copters and drones for sports and real estate photography.
Those that have cruised PNW waters may be familiar with Sea Snaps photography which would shoot your boat and sell you the prints if you were interested. Can you imagine how cool it would be to have a short aerial video of your boat underway? You could run it as a loop on your desktop computer as a screensaver to remind you of what a perfect day on the water looks like. Here's my pal Tom's demo reel for Tada Films. Tada Films aerial demo 3 on Vimeo

Marin · Oct 23, 2012

Pretty good stuff. We use a company out of California called Copter Kids (http://copterkidsllc.com/ for this sort of RC helicopter footage. They use a Canon D5 in a steerable gyro mount. The image quality is amazing with the 5D (our camera department just bought one). Full HD resolution.

We've met the SeaSnaps lady a few times in the Gulf Islands. She's quite a character. Saw her boat this September somewhere---- Ganges I think--- but didn't see her. She must be doing okay to be at it so long.

Island Sunset · Oct 23, 2012

Moonfish said:
Hi all -

We just finished shooting principal video for our Washington State Parks Video Cruising Guides for the San Juan Islands. Now for a few weeks of solid editing! But in the meantime, we took a selection of scenes of put them to music to give you a glimpse of what you can expect to see:

WA STate Marine Parks San Juan Islands

We'll be creating individual cruising guides for each park, and for Stuart and Sucia Island, videos for each bay/harbor. All videos will be posted online for free. We'll then create a full featured DVD with bonus materials that will be available for purchase - just in time for the holidays we hope! A portion of the proceeds will go back to support the park system, which has been severely affected by all the budget shortfalls and cuts.

Uuu

Island Sunset · Oct 23, 2012

Moonfish said:
Hi all -

We just finished shooting principal video for our Washington State Parks Video Cruising Guides for the San Juan Islands. Now for a few weeks of solid editing! But in the meantime, we took a selection of scenes of put them to music to give you a glimpse of what you can expect to see:

WA STate Marine Parks San Juan Islands

We'll be creating individual cruising guides for each park, and for Stuart and Sucia Island, videos for each bay/harbor. All videos will be posted online for free. We'll then create a full featured DVD with bonus materials that will be available for purchase - just in time for the holidays we hope! A portion of the proceeds will go back to support the park system, which has been severely affected by all the budget shortfalls and cuts.

Good to see you out and about in the new boat. Will keep an eye out for our sister ship.

Moonfish · Oct 24, 2012

windmist said:
Amazing video Darren. I recognize most of those scenes but when I've been there it has always been raining and blowing about 20 knots but you where able to get all those scenes in sunshine. Truly amazing. I'm thinking you did all this on August 6th and August 21st. I beleive these where the only 2 days when it didn't rain this year.

Ron

I know what you're saying, Ron!

The funny thing is, most of July was a bust weather wise (at least up in da' islonds, mon), and August was stop and go. Two days nice weather, four days bad, one day good, three days bad... But mid-Sept through the first two weeks of October were FREAKING GLORIOUS!!!!

Oops, did I yell that out loud? Seriously, the weather was perfect during that time. And we could even get a mooring buoy or dock space. We still had a few days of foggy or overcast mornings, but it wasn't until the middle of October that the weather finally turned.

Moonfish · Oct 24, 2012

Marin said:
The GoPro is a neat little camera to play with. We've mounted ours on the end of a helicopter blade looking back at the helicopter, I've set it on the center line of airport gates so the nosewheel of an incoming plane comes right up and stops just a foot or two from it, we've mounted it on a piece of "luggage" and sent it through an airport's entire luggage transport system, we've mounted it on an aircraft fuselage that was being "flown" through the Everett plant on the overhead cranes, on top of a fuselage that was going by train from Wichita to Renton, and we've put it inside a five-axis NC machine and had it "machined" by various bits and tools that were picked up and came up to it. It's amazing the thing hasn't been destroyed yet.

Our primary cameras are four Panasonic DVCpro HDX 900 (digital tape) and two new HDX-2000 P2 (cards). We just got a new Canon 5D with a range of lenses and a video viewfinder for shallow depth of field video work. The image quality from that is simply amazing.

If you've been in the business long enough, you aren't usually "surprised" by technology. But I am still amazed at what these little GoPros can do. Sounds like you've had a lot of fun with yours. I also have worked on a multi-camera project with Canon 5Ds. Yes, amazing image quality...

ancora · Oct 24, 2012

I envy you for the many boating destinations up there but not the weather. If what Marin said is true, that video was taken on the one day of the year it didn't rain.

Marin · Oct 24, 2012

Actually, ancora, the video was probably taken in the five hours it wasn't raining on a day that it did. The San Juans is not a big place. It's easy to cover all of it in a few hours even in a relatively slow boat.

Either that or he did what I often do for pictures of the "PNW" and use images or parts of images from New Zealand.

Here is a real image from here that you need to cling to when thinking of boating in this area. The docks were dry when I took the shot but the rain in the distance arrived about 30 minutes later and soaked everything non-stop for the next few days of our stay.

windmist · Oct 24, 2012

Moonfish said:
I know what you're saying, Ron!

The funny thing is, most of July was a bust weather wise (at least up in da' islonds, mon), and August was stop and go. Two days nice weather, four days bad, one day good, three days bad... But mid-Sept through the first two weeks of October were FREAKING GLORIOUS!!!!

Oops, did I yell that out loud? Seriously, the weather was perfect during that time. And we could even get a mooring buoy or dock space. We still had a few days of foggy or overcast mornings, but it wasn't until the middle of October that the weather finally turned.

This is for your eyes only, Darren. Those of you who live in CA or the right coast, please do not read further.
_________________________________________________

This last summer was the most fabulous I can ever recall and I was born and raised in Seattle. We spent over 30 days in the Broughton's where rain is typically almost a daily ocurrance. As I recall, we had maybe 2 days with a light drizzle and very few days where the wind got above 5 - 10 knots. The temperature hardly every got above 70 but up in the Broughton's, 65 is not too bad. One of my best summers ever. And then down in the Puget sound area we had something like 80 straight days of sunshine with a couple of days that had a light drizzle. I wonder if we will ever see this weather pattern again in our lifetimes?

Ron

Marin · Oct 24, 2012

windmist said:
T I wonder if we will ever see this weather pattern again in our lifetimes?

Ron

Apparently not. I have it on good authority from our cargo sales and marketing team that the rainless 80-day stretch was due to a large shipment of Global Warming that was heavily damaged during transit to a Cargolux 747 at Seatac. The shipment was on it's way to Europe but the semi transferring the crates to the Cargolux ramp took a corner too fast and the trailer overturned and most of the crates broke open. So almost all the Global Warming escaped.

Since the shipment was relatively small the Global Warming lost its influence on the local climate in about 80 days. Which is why we are now back to our normal rain and wind.

My friends in cargo sales and marketing tell me that new procedures have been put in place at Seatac as well as in Anchorage where a lot of air cargo transfers occur to prevent any future damage to Global Warming shipments, so I would not expect to see such a stretch of weather up here again.

We enjoyed it, too, for a few weeks up in the Gulf Islands.

windmist · Oct 25, 2012

Thanks Marin. That clears up the mystery. I guess that means back to the constant rain next summer.

Ron

ancora · Oct 25, 2012

We had a couple of guys come down from British Columbia to use our boat in a log race. I opined that they must do their log racing in the summer. The skipper said they go cruising in the not so bad summer weather and do log racing in the really bad winter weather.

WA State Marine Parks video - San Juan Islands

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