Are We Having Fun Yet?!?!?

Last week I blogged that I was finally in the thick of the old photography class
-- that my camera could both take videos and continuous still shots. I didn't know when I wrote that (because I'd missed the class in which the continuous motion assignment was discussed) that when the teacher talked about cameras that could *take* video and shoot continuous pictures, what he really meant was that some cameras can be set to automatically take photos every couple of seconds... and that some cameras can then reorder those photos in order to use them to *make* a video!

So you see, I was still so NOT in our class' group of in-the-know amateur photographers when I downloaded the shot-as-video sequence I'd taken of my grand-daughter on her first birthday with my point-and-shoot... and that my photo sequences, although continuous, could only be obtained with my constant depression of the camera's shutter (in other words, not as the result of having engaged an automatic timer)! BIGSIGH. How's that learning curve going?!?

This week's assignment was to make a slideshow/movie that incorporates music and tells a story. While I am pleased to finally have completed the assignment, my pleasure has been dissipated somewhat over the last 4 days. On each of those days I tried at home to make the Picasa program for movies work on my computer and with music I'd downloaded from the internet. I was able to import and sequence the pictures without problem, but my music file would not attach. The audio file and the slideshow played well independently of one another. But (grrr) the audio would not play when imported to the slideshow to accompany the pictures! Though it is an .mp3 file, which supposedly is compatible with Picasa, I got messages saying that the music could not be uploaded because its format was not supported by the program. As best as I can figure out, maybe I do not have the version of Windows Media Player that is compatible with Picasa -- OR perhaps I do not have the most recent version of Vista Home Premium for 64 bit systems, or... (who knows)??? I am definitely going to need to figure out what is going on with that if I am to do my final slideshow project at home.

I finally completed the slideshow in the school's photography lab after work today. Here is my slideshow uploaded to Picasa (but I notice that its quality for on-line viewing is much reduced from the quality of the file as it exists on my hard drive).

Videos and Continuous Picture Sequences

This week's assignment was to upload short videos, if your camera can record videos, or continuous picture sequences (if it does not). For once, it is MY CAMERA that can do both things (last week I learned that, plain and simple, my camera does not "do" raw files. So just forget it.)!

I've uploaded a couple of videos that I'd made earlier this semester. But it was SO MUCH MORE FUN to make the continuous photo sequences, and I spent a happy day at work (and after that, at home) coming up with some fun ones -- one longer, and also several shorter ones.

Here are the video uploads.

The shorter continuous shot sequences are here. To get the feeling of the motion that exists between pictures, it works better to quickly click through the individual shots (instead of watching the progression as a slideshow).

You can view the long photo sequence here. Again, to get the feeling of the walk, I recommend clicking through.