FishTales Blog has moved to Tumblr

If you’re reading this Blog, you are in the wrong place. At least it will be the wrong place when I do the next post. When I did the new web site design that just went live a couple hours ago, I had to make a change in how the Blog was hosted. On the old site, the Blog was embedded in the site and also mirrored at fishtales.blogspot.com. I would have kept it that way if possible, but the Blog plugin that I was using on my site is not compatible with the new software. I decided that my best option was going to be to transfer the Blog to Tumblr when the new site went active. So if you are subscribed to the Blog at fishtales.blogspot.com, you will no longer receive notifications of new posts. The solution is very simple. Just go to the new location: fishtalesfilms.tumblr.com and you will find the new Blog there and you will be able to follow it just as you were on blogspot. Tumblr also has apps for mobile devices so you can get notifications of new posts through the app too if you wish. I think that in the long run, Tumblr will make it easier for me to make posts in remote locations since I can do it directly from my iPhone or iPad if necessary. So head on over to fishtalesfilms.tumblr.com and follow along on the adventure.

New Site Online

Ok, I’ve tweaked, tuned, debugged and fiddle farted around enough with the new web site design. It’s time to set it free. I just uploaded everything and the new site is live. Actually, it’s really 3 sites. Since internet bandwidth is vastly different from one user to the next, I decided to have a version for people with a slow connection, a normal version that should be OK for the average user and a tricked out version for those with fast connections. Think of it as websites running in three parallel universes. How do you choose which you get? The “home page” of the FishTalesFilms web site is now a launch pad that lets you choose the speed that suits your situation. the actual sites are sub-domains located at: lowband.fishtalesfilms.com, main.fishtalesfilms.com and hiband.fishtalesfilms.com. If you don’t want to go through the “launch pad” page each time, just bookmark the “home page” of the version of your choice.

The content is basically the same on each site, but adjustments were made to each for different levels of performance. The version for slow connections has single banner photos on each page header and they are compressed heavily to make the files as small as possible. That degrades the quality of the images, but they should load on slow connections. The normal version of the site has multiple photos for the banners in each header and they do a cool dissolve effect. The images are not compressed as heavily as the slow version, so the quality is better. The high bandwidth version of the site has all the same features of the normal version, but the images are saved at a higher quality. Also, on the video page, instead of still images in the header, it is HD video instead. On all three versions of the site, the video’s are the same because they are all hosted on Vimeo. If you have a slower connection, you can just select a lower resolution in the Vimeo player. The other big change in the site is the Blog which is now hosted on Tumblr. I will write more about this in a separate post. When I do an update, I have to do all three sites, but since most of the content is common to all three, it really isn’t a big deal. The Blog is what changes most, and all three sites pull that from Tumblr so no additional effort is requited on my part. Hope you enjoy the new site, it’s loaded with tasty visual goodness!

New Web Site

Well, I don’t have a fresh New Zealand film ready to upload this week. I can explain. I started a major rebuild of my web site last week, and I fully intended to multi task between that project and my New Zealand editing. But I got quite involved in the web site project and decided to just power through until I had it ready. I’m almost there, that last little bit I need to do is update some of the text, make it mobile friendly and get this Blog transferred to the new site.

There will be a ton of new content in the site. I’ve built everything from the ground up with much new content. It took me two days just to pick out the new photos for the page graphics and galleries. The Lightroom library that I’m traveling with has about 35,000 images (the rest is still stored in the US). I literally went through all 35,000 images to pick out material for the site. Then I had to create the new page banners. I think they look pretty nice, and they will be showing off more images than ever before. I’ve tried to optimize page load speed by compressing the imagery more than I usually would. So hopefully, this will be the last post on the old web site, and my next one will be on FishTales new home.

Showtime

OK, it's showtime again. After filming for over 2 months in New Zealand, I'm now hanging out in Bangkok for a month to work on postproduction and organization. This little video is the first of several that I will do with footage from the New Zealand trip. The theme of this episode is Mountains. New Zealand has spectacular mountain scenery. Most of it is from the South Island in the Southern Alps, but there are a few scenes from the North Island too. There are several scenes that I filmed from the air with my DJI Inspire Quadcopter. There are a couple time lapse scenes and even a few still photos in the mix. You can see the film in the “Travel Films” menu on this website, or view it directly on my Vimeo channel at: https://vimeo.com/fishtales/sky-and-stone Hope you enjoy it!

Moonlit Sanctuary

The weather was better today than I expected. It was supposed to be rainy in the AM and then just cloudy in the afternoon. It was, in fact, pretty nasty in the morning, so I dawdled around more than usual. I wanted to go to the Moonlit Sanctuary SE of Melbourne and try to get some Wallaby footage. They have a area with free roaming Kangaroos and Wallabies and since this is my last day in Australia, I thought I’d give it a shot. By the time I arrived there, the wether had actually cleared off and was fairly sunny. I got my Wallabies, a couple Kangaroos and one more dozing Koala Bear. So I’m finished with my Australia filming and tomorrow I’m off to Bangkok for a month to catch up on my postproduction projects.


Another snoozer.


Here’s a Wallaby. They are much smaller than a Kangaroo and tend to live more in forests than out on grassy plains.


Here’s another one foraging for something good to eat.


This is a smaller species of Wallaby. Except for the long tail and the little Joey in the pouch, they look more like Rabbits than Kangaroos.


Here’s a Roo lounging in the sunshine.


This place obviously gets Asian tour groups that have never seen anything but a squat toilet (a hole in the floor). Sometimes they need some special instruction on how to use a toilet. There’s an old joke that is appropriate for this situation:

You know you are in Asia when you see footprints on the toilet seat.
You know you’ve been in Asia a long time when you see footprints on the toilet seat and it doesn’t seem strange.
You know you’ve been in Asia too long when you see footprints on the toilet seat and realize that they are you own.

Phillip Island

I spent the day on Phillip Island, about 2 hours drive SE of Melbourne. The weather today was better than I expected. I had to wait for clouds a couple times, but it wasn’t too bad. I went to a wildlife reserve that has Koala Bears and I managed to get a few good scenes. They have a boardwalk that is up off the ground a bit, not really very high, but it lets you get a little closer to some of the Koalas. They spend 20 hours a day sleeping, so once you find one, its not going to run away. Most of the Koalas I filmed today were, in fact, snoozing.

I also spent some time out at the SW tip of Phillip Island where there are interesting rock formations and a lot of nesting sea birds.


Sound Asleep!


He doesn’t seem worried about rolling off the limb he’s napping on.


This guy looked like he had a bad night.


Ah, here’s one awake. He looks drowsy though.


This one ate a couple Eucalyptus leaves, then promptly went back to sleep


This is at the SW tip of Phillip Island.


These rock formations are called “The Nobbies”


There are lots of little Succulents blooming this time of year (springtime in Australia).


Several hundred sea birds make their nests in the Succulents.


I think these birds that were flying in formation over the point are Ibis. At least they have a long thin curved beaks like the Ibis do.

Great Ocean Road (Again)

I spent the day filming on Great Ocean Road again. This time, I was doing mostly aerials. Today was supposed to be a sun break in the cloudy weather and though it didn’t start shining as early as it was supposed to, and didn’t really clear off as much as they said it would, it was adequate until about 1:00 PM when the high overcast took over. I went back to the places that I scouted as possible aerial locations. I also stopped at a couple other places that I saw on a satellite image. There are quite a few small dirt roads leading off the main highway, and none of them are marked in any way. Some are access points for surfers, others for hiking trails. Several of them were good places to fly. By 1:00 when the sunlight finally crapped out I had finished all four of my batteries and have a little over 50 scenes. So I would call the day a success. I also shot a few stills under lighting conditions that I didn’t have on my first pass through here.


Here’s “The Arch” with some afternoon light. I also shot it this morning, but I like this time of day better.


This arch in the Bay of Islands is in a better orientation for morning light.


Here’s an evening shot looking East from one of the Bay of Islands viewpoints.


Some Sea Stacks at sunset.


Here’s a “Dronie” that I inadvertently shot of myself while I was finishing up a pass. That little viewing platform makes a nice landing pad. Tour buses don’t stop here, so it is not very crowded.

Tower Hill

Today was mostly cloudy and not very conducive to scenic photography. It was supposed to start clearing off around noon, but it was still 95% cloud cover by then. I went to the Tower Hill state park to see if I could get a little bit more wildlife. The park is located in an ancient volcanic crater and has several small lakes inside. It is supposed to be a good place to see the Emu, a large flightless bird. I did see several there and got footage of individuals, pairs and a small flock. I also saw one Koala Bear there, but it was not possible to film it as it was obscured high up a tree and the background was bright white cloudy sky.


A small group of Emus. They are a little smaller than an Ostrich. The females leave as soon as they have laid their eggs and the male incubates them and raises the chicks.


This is one of the little crater lakes at Tower Hill.

The Grampians

I spent the day in The Grampians National Park. It is a mountainous park, at least by Australian standards. Australia is relatively flat so any hump gets called a mountain. I visited several of the park’s signature attractions including Mackenzie Falls, The Balconies, Venus Baths and the Fyans Creek trail. A highlight of the day for me was filming Kangaroos at Fyans Creek. I saw a total of about 20. Some were feeding, some were lounging around in the grass, a couple of mothers had baby Joeys in their pouches. This is my third time to Australia, but the first time I’ve seen wild Kangaroos (except road kill). In all honesty, I have to admit that the first time I was diving and t he second time I was just in Sydney which isn’t know for having much of a population of wild Kangaroos (except on gold courses, but I don’t play golf). I got some fairly good footage today, so I now have the two iconic Australian animals, Koalas and Kangaroos.


These pools are called the “Venus Baths”. I didn’t see any goddesses or nymphs.


This is Mackenzie Falls.


On the way back up from a strenuous climb down to Mackenzie falls, you encounter this sign where they are doing some maintenance on the trail. It looks like something they would have for highway construction, not hiking trail work. I had to laugh because everyone who passes this is huffing and puffing and I guarantee they are all prepared to stop.


This rock formation is called “The Balconies” You used to be able to climb out on the tip of the lower balcony, but they have blocked it off. I suppose too many people were falling off while attempting a selfie.


When standing, this guy was about as tall as me.


I’m wondering how the Kangaroos know when they have traveled the 64 kilometers. I didn’t see any on the road in either direction so I can only assume that they don’t read too well.

Princess Margaret Rose Cave

Today was forecast to be rainy, and it was. Following my pattern of using rainy days to shoot where it doesn’t matter what the weather is, I decided on the Princess Margaret Rose Cave in Lower Glenelg National Park. It actually stopped raining when I got a sufficient distance from Portland (makes sense to me). It wasn’t raining in the cave at all. After the cave, I did a fairly long drive to The Grampians National Park. It was clearing off as I arrived late in the afternoon, and tomorrow is supposed to be nice.


The Princess Margaret Rose Cave has some spectacularly detailed formations.


It has some of the longest Stalactites I’ve see on this trip.


There’s lots of interesting flowstone formations too.


Here’s a “Chandelier” of tiny Stalactites called straws. They are hollow and form from the inside out.

Portland (Australia)

Well, I’m spending the night in Portland. No, I haven’t found a way to teleport myself back to Oregon. I’m in Portland, Victoria, Australia. This is the oldest city in Victoria, first settled in 1835 which pre-dates Portland Oregon’s incorporation by 16 years. I drove up here from Port Campbell along the Great Ocean Road. It was a cloudy day with only a few sun breaks, so I didn’t do too much shooting. I did do some scouting of locations that I will shoot on the way back down when the weather will, hopefully, be more photogenic. One positive note is that I’ve found some places that I can do my coastal aerials that aren’t packed with Chinese Tour Buses. There are actually more Sea Stacks up in the area above Port Campbell than there are at the 12 Apostles, but they aren’t quite as tall. That just means that I’ll have to fly a little lower for the same effect.


This is called the Arch.


This is London Bridge. It used to be two arches, but a few years ago the left arch connecting to the mainland collapsed.


This is called The Grotto.


As I mentioned, there were clouds today.


These strange flowers are almost black with bright lime green centers.


Welcome to Portland. You can see overcast sky in the background. At least they got that right.

Great Ocean Road

I arrived in Melbourne late last night. It was 1:00 AM by the time I got my rental car and arrived at my hotel. It feels strange to go from a fairly large vehicle like the motorhome I was used to driving and get into a little compact car. It’s very responsive compared to the motorhome. I have to be careful when I use the brakes because they don’t require nearly as much physical effort as the motorhome did.

This morning, I started on my trip across the Great Ocean Road that traverses the Southeastern coast of Australia. MY goal for the day was a section of shear ocean cliffs with rocky “stacks” just offshore called the 12 Apostles. I was hoping to fly there, but that will be clearly impossible for two reasons. The first reason is that there is a small airport there that does scenic helicopter flights. It is not legal to fly near an airport, so that’s out. Even if I wished to fudge on that rule, the second reason it won’t work is that its crawling with tourists. There were hundreds of Chinese tourists in big tour groups flooding the place. I counted 16 tour buses there. I’m hopeful that I can find other similar dramatic coastal features that are not on the tourist route.

I did manage a little bit of wildlife shooting today. On my way out to see a lighthouse at Cape Otway, I saw four Koalas. Two adults and a mother with a baby. That was a nice surprise. I was hoping to find Koalas sometime while I’m here and figured that might be my most difficult goal. It’s nice to tick that one off the list the first day. I saw lots of sighs for Kangaroo Crossings, but so far, no Roos.


A view of the coast near the start of the Great Ocean Road.


The lighthouse at Split Point.


A “Stack” formation near Split Point.


My first wild Koalas. This is a still frame from a 4K video scene.


This guy was about 4 trees over from the first pair I saw.


This is the 12 Apostles. To be perfectly honest, there aren’t really 12 of them, but I guess it sounds better.


These two Stacks are in the opposite direction. They are called Gog and Magog.


This is a panorama of the “Razorback” near Loch Ard Gorge, the site of a tragic 19th century shipwreck.


Another view of The Razorback.


An arch near Loch Ard Gorge in the late afternoon.


The 12 Apostles just before sunset.


Gog and Magog catching the last pastel rays of sun.