The Sony camera I bought in 2007 is now quite poorly and needs replacing. I have about two and one third tapes left of a range that is no longer being manufactured because modern cameras record onto memory cards. Steve arranged a loan camera, a Panasonic 4K (ultra high resolution) camcorder for me to trial. I collected it on September 10 and used it on 3 occasions, filming my usual subject matter, before returning it today. The camera’s 13x optical zoom lens is simply insufficient for my purposes. I require a 20x zoom such as I have on the Sony. I haven’t seen the footage I shot yet so I don’t know the camera’s picture quality.
My vimeo presence in the last two years has resulted in me being contacted by people from all over the world liking my work. Most are videographers, but a number join vimeo because they are interested in a particular subject or because they maintain a video blog. Today I received a message from someone in Istanbul who joined vimeo yesterday as ‘Best Quality Mushroom’, liking my ‘Tree Mushroom’ video. Earlier this month I received a message from ‘Days of Disorder’ a video blog maintained by a Spanish person based in Berlin who liked a moth video of mine.
This a.m. I collected the two 64 gigabyte USBs which I sent to the NFSA with 215 HD species videos in April, from the post office. Steve and I are working our way through re-titling the SD videos, so in due course at least one of the USBs will be making the return trip to the NFSA.
Steve emailed Dave Allen at the State Library to tell him that he has put the data files for HD Tapes 81 to 100 on the hard drive awaiting collection. I supplied the contents lists which have been included.
I collected the Deed of Gift from the Museum signed by Michelle Ryan who is Manager of Publications & Photography. The Queensland Museum has now officially accepted my donation of my Image Library. As with the State Library’s collection of all the unedited footage, there is a clause which provides for the inclusion of additional material. Michelle and I are trying to find a way of raising money for the Museum to publish my One small place on earth book which I am currently re-writing. Fingers crossed.
Hugh Alexander having witnessed my signature, I today posted two copies of the Deed of Gift for my Image Library to the Queensland Museum, one copy of which will be posted to me signed by the Museum. Negotiations took a while because I have retained copyright. I gather the Museum owns all rights for all but a few of the donations it receives.
I was thrilled and touched to receive a hand-written letter from David Attenborough thanking me for the photos of the Log Cabin Case Moth and the letter about finding it that I sent him. He wrote that he had never seen the dewlling of a Log Cabin Case Moth before and that he found it fascinating.
My February 8 post was about walking past a cycad growing next to the footpath for years and years after I first filmed it and not noticing the white beech tree that had all but smothered it. Jaap alerted Land Care who liaised with Council to do the work. On today’s walk I was overjoyed to see the cycad unencumbered once again. The tree stumps remain as a reminder of the intruder. Removing them may endanger the cycad.
Following an earlier email to Dave Allen, the IT guru at the State Library, about Steve and I supplying data files for an additional 20 tapes of unedited footage as per the Deed of Gift, my follow-up email elcited an immediate response. Dave still has the hard drive onto which Steve copies the files and he has emailed us about dropping the hard drive off so that Steve can get to work on them.