Joining a group of friends, we headed towards the O’odham Reservation. Our printed invitation led us to a dirt road, a gate, and into a private patch of desert.  I recognized this place – last summer I was filming toads out here, and what an orgy it was!  In front of us stood seven pianos in a heap of old timbers. The ball of the sun sank in the west, chased by a spectacular moonrise in the east. As a live band set up their sound system, a group of kids made their own music on exposed piano keys and wires within their reach. A couple fresh-in from Socorro, New Mexico, came over to strike up a conversation, as I caught a glimpse of a guy sporting a pirate’s hat.  A fun evening unfolded as cars continued to pour in.

A musician announced just one more song before the pianos would meet their fate.  The music ended, and someone lit a dried Christmas tree to start the blaze. Whoosh . . . within minutes the whole pile was ablaze.  Two or three piano strings let out a “ping” under the stress. The intense heat drove us all into a quick retreat. People were quiet and mesmerized as piano skeletons were exposed and tumbled, one by one.

What a visual treat!  So engaged in my photography, I failed to notice the arrival of a fire truck and ambulance that sat silently in the parking area, lights flashing.  Even though we were on private property a fair distance from civilization, the conflagration had drawn outside attention.  But it was a calm evening with no risk of the fire spreading, so all was well.

You just never know who you might bump into at an event like this, one of the things I love about living in Tucson. A super-friendly gal visiting from New Jersey spent a lot of time peeking over my shoulder, watching me work. She was one of the few people in the group without a camera but was artistically involved, calling my attention to fiery details that she feared I might overlook. As we waited for the last piano to fall, I raced around the fire to fetch a fresh CF card and got back in time to capture a few more stills and a video clip of the piano falling. She was as excited about this success as I was.  And herewith is one of those images.

So who is his mystery lady? I immediately checked out her website when I got home last night, and it turns out she’s a world travelin’ freelance singer-songwriter-musical performer of rising fame, Linda Chorney – perhaps you’ve heard her perform. She has shared the marquee with Paul Simon, Jackson Brown, Sheryl Crow, and Dave Mason, among others. Linda has entertained audiences as big as 250,000 and has had the honor of performing for Nelson Mandella in Boston. Check out her cool website:  www.lindachorney.com.  Under the “Tour” tab, you’ll even see a picture of her getting a squeeze from Bruce Springsteen, one of my idols. I’m certainly honored to have crossed paths with such a genuinely sweet and talented human being last night.

It’s fortuitous perhaps that 2011′s Vernal Equinox marks the “completion” of this website, a time for new beginnings.  What you see here has been three years in the making, with a couple of major set-backs along the way.  This, like all websites, is a work in progress, and we hope that you like what you see.  Please notify us of any flaws that you encounter as you browse through these pages. ~ TW

LAST PIANO STANDING in a bonfire lit to celebrate 2011's Vernal Equinox west of Tucson, Arizona.

Adding metadata to your stills and videos, especially ownership info, should be a fundamental step in your workflow.  Unfortunately, others can easily remove this information.  Social networking sites are among the worst offenders (see this Survey on the Controlled Vocabulary Forum).  So to protect your work, it’s good practice to also add visual and/or cryptic watermarks, e.g. a Digimarc.  Visual watermarks offer the best protection.  Branding your media with visual ownership information entitles you to Copyright protection to the full extent of the law if anyone intentionally removes your identification marks.

While preparing video clips for this website, I needed an easy way to watermark videos and upload them to Vimeo. I’m not a tech-head, and I’m writing this to save others some pain along the way.

After a little research, I decided on iMovie ’11 (designed for Macs with Snow Leopard only).  After wasting a lot of time on Apple’s website trying to find the information I needed, I ended up paying about $15 for the download. As part of iLife ’11, the program bundle costs $49. Users who know more about iMovie than myself recommend other programs for serious video editing.  But iMovie ’11 does allow you to upload your videos directly to Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, CNN iReport, MobileMe Gallery, or Podcast Producer – the one iMovie feature I was looking for. I prefer QuickTime Pro for trimming useless material from raw video clips and stay with professional editors armed with programs such as Final Cut Pro for creative post-production work.

After watching a popular iMovie tutorial on the Internet, I decided to try watermarking one of my video clips with our company logo.  The logo looked crisp in Photoshop, but when viewed in iMovie and on Vimeo, it was out of focus and fuzzy. I could find no useful advice on forums and spent two days trying to find an answer. I watched two more tutorials on this subject and read related material in a book on iMovie. By themselves, none of these sources offered a clear explanation of how to create and add a watermark to videos.  But by piecing information together from all four sources, here’s what I discovered works well.

USING PHOTOSHOP TO CREATE YOUR WATERMARK :: The following information is not geared to those using PS Elements. Using PSE would require a modified tutorial.

1.   Create a new file in Photoshop (PS):  File > New

Give it a name. Set the Opacity to Transparent, the Bit Depth to 16, and the Width and Height to the size of your video format, i.e. for HD-1080p, use 1920px x 1080px; for traditional TV formats, use 720px x 480px; etc.  Use the format that matches your camera output specs. Set the resolution to 72ppi, but for branding videos, the resolution you choose won’t matter.

2.  WORKING WITH A READY-MADE LOGO (logos that make good watermarks are bold and have little intricate detail – if yours is delicate or you don’t have a prepared logo, I recommend using PS’s Type Tool to create your watermark – and jump down to Step 3 below).  Begin with an electronic file of your logo (preferably solid black and/or solid white) on a transparent background; and in PS, size its background to match the specs you used in Step 1 above. Be sure to adjust the size of your logo to nearly span the width or height of its background. Leave some breathing room around it, but to retain the logo’s clarity when you move it into iMovie, it must be large.

Now you have two files open in PS, one with the logo and one with a blank background. Using PS’s Lasso or Rectangular Marquee Tool, select your logo, click on the Move Tool, and drag the logo onto your new blank transparent canvas. You should be able to click on the logo and drag it around on the new background to reposition it if you want (but you’ll later see that it’s position isn’t very important at this time).

In the Layers Palette (Window > Layers), your logo will appear as a new layer above the transparent background layer. Highlight the logo layer, right click on it’s thumbnail, and choose Merge Down. You should now have only one layer, with your logo on a transparent background. Note that in the Layers Palette, when your logo layer is highlighted, you can move the Opacity slider to adjust the logo’s density/transparency. Skip down to Step 4 below.

3.  USE PHOTOSHOP’S TYPE TOOL to create some combination of letters or words that identify you or your company. Begin by selecting the tool with the big “T” icon in PS’s tool’s palette. Choose a font that you like from the drop-down list.  Avoid fancy fonts with fine lines; for watermarking, bolder is better, and I suggest using all capital letters.

Click in the Type Tool’s color-picker box (top right) to choose a font color.  I recommend using only pure black or pure white.  If you’re working in black, go to Image > Duplicate and make a copy for use with white lettering.  You’ll need both if you have an assortment of video clips to watermark, some light and some dark.

Choose a Point Size for your font from the drop-down menu.  Click in the transparent background that you made in Step 1, and begin typing. It’s likely that your type will be much too small relative to the size of its background.  PS allows you to enter your own numbers for Point Size, all the way up to 1296.  So experiment, keeping in mind that you should try to fill about 80% of the field’s width or height with your lettering.  You can reposition the type by choosing the Move Tool in the Tools Palette, and you can also adjust the opacity of the type by using the Opacity Slider in the Layers Palette.

4.  ADJUSTING YOUR LOGO OR TYPE OPACITY allows you to create a semi-transparent watermark that can be read but doesn’t compete with your video.  Much to my surprise, I have found that 15% opacity works the best on my video clips, but I have made and saved multiple watermark files at different opacities in both black and white. Blacks look the best over light videos and whites are ideal for dark videos.

5.  NEXT, CREATE AN ALPHA CHANNEL by opening the Channels Palette (Window > Channels).  Click on the small dotted circle at the bottom of this palette to “Load Channel as Selection.” Then click on the icon next to it (a square with a circle in it) to “Save Selection as Channel.” Then deselect the channel selection (Alt D).  Be sure all Channels are visible (eyeballs showing), and highlight the new alpha channel at the bottom of the stack of 5 channels.

6.  SAVE AS A PNG FILE by going to File > Save As > choose PNG, saved to your Desktop. You will get a message that says “This file must be saved as a copy,” so click Save.  Choose None for Interlace Options. Your ready-to-use watermark will now be sitting on your Desktop as a PNG file. Save your working file too. You can use it to make variations of your watermark, e.g. some with different opacities.

ADDING YOUR WATERMARK TO VIDEOS IN iMOVIE ’11 ::  Now for a few tips on using iMovie to apply watermarks and export videos to video-sharing sites.

1. Open iMovie ’11 and clear all video clips from the Project Window (I found that all clips in the Project Window—even those not selected—will be uploaded together when choosing Share > Vimeo).

2.  Select “New Event” in left column

3.  Go to File > Import Movies and select a video clip to import

4.  Select entire video clip in iMovie’s New Event Window and drag the clip into the Project Window.

5.  Drag and drop your PNG watermark from your Desktop onto the video clip now in the Project Window and select “Picture in Picture” from the pop-up menu.

6.  Your watermark will appear as a small rectangle sitting on top of your video clip.  Click in the rectangle to Select it and use your cursor to click and drag its left highlighted edge to the front of your video clip (assuming you want the watermark to begin when the video begins to play). This can be fussy to do, but keep trying if it doesn’t move as expected.  And similarly, assuming you want the watermark to show to the end of your video, drag the right edge of this rectangle all the way to the end of the video clip.

7.  Look for your watermark in the upper right corner of the video preview window.  You’ll see small white corners marking the transparent frame you created in Photoshop.  By clicking within your watermark frame, you can drag and position it anywhere you want within the video frame.  And by clicking and pulling on one of its white corners, you can enlarge the watermark to suit yourself.

8.  If you need to REMOVE an unwanted SOUND TRACK, this is a good time to do it.  Just select the video clip, right click on it, and choose “Detach Audio.”  An Audio Bar will appear below your video clip. Click on the bar to select it, and with a right click of your mouse, choose Delete Selection.

9.  In the top iMovie bar, choose Share > Vimeo (or another site, such as YouTube).

10.  A metadata menu will appear.  Here you can add the clip’s Title/File Name and Description/Caption info.  If uploading to Vimeo, I suggest leaving the Tags/Keywords field blank at this point – I could never get the iMovie Keywords to load properly in the Vimeo Tags field.  So wait to do this in Vimeo after the upload.

11.  Log in and Upload to Vimeo.  You will be given Share options—choose one.

12.  The upload and processing time depends on the length of your video.

13.  IF YOU ARE A VIMEO USER, after uploading your video, go to your account.  Under Videos >MyVideos you’ll see the video you just uploaded.  Click on the SETTINGS button and here you will be given many important options (if you have a Vimeo Plus account), including Basic Info, Privacy, Credits, and Embedding, with explanations along the way. Under Basic Info, you can add up to 20 Tags/Keywords separated by commas (do not leave empty spaces after commas).  Always end with SAVE CHANGES.

I hope this write-up proves useful to others.  Feel free to share this information, but please provide a credit line (Thomas Wiewandt / wildhorizons.com), preferably with a hot link back to our website.  ~ TW

Screen-shot of a video preview in iMovie '11 with our watermark created in Photoshop using black type reduced to 15% opacity.

Our 14th ISG Meeting was hosted by Cuba, a place I’ve wanted to visit for many years. If you’re curious about Cuba, read on. Most of the ISG team flew from Miami to Havana on a special charter sanctioned by the U.S. Dept. of Treasury. Unlike Europeans, Canadians, South Americans, and most other people of the world who can travel freely to/from Cuba, U.S. Citizens cannot simply jump on a plane and fly to Havana. Under the most enduring trade embargo in modern history, a commercial, economic, and financial embargo against Cuba that started in 1960 has persisted to this day. Travel to and from Cuba is thereby restricted, unless authorized under a conditional Travel Affidavit or License granted by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control.

In reality, however, travel to Cuba is easy if one first flies to a foreign port of entry to catch a flight to Havana. Cuba reported 2.5 million tourists in 2009, with Canada topping the list with close to 915,000 visitors, followed by Great Britain at 172,000 and Spain at 129,000. Excluding Cuban-Americans, Cuba reported over 52,000 tourists arriving from the United States in 2009. Cubans welcome American visitors warmly. Immigration officials will stamp your visa instead of your passport when entering and leaving their country. But don’t try bringing anything other than arts and crafts back to the USA. Branded Cuban cigars, for example, will land you in deep trouble if found by a U.S. Customs Agent. I decided to enter Cuba via Grand Cayman, allowing me to extend my trip an extra 12 days to visit colleagues engaged in iguana conservation projects in the Cayman Islands (I’ll save this experience for an upcoming blog in 2011).

I ended up spending 19 days in Cuba (November 5-24), barely enough time to scratch the surface. Our group of about 47 non-Cuban attendees was bussed from Havana to Guanahacabibes National Park, which flanks Cuba’s southwestern coast. There we were joined by about 14 Cuban biologists and park officials for a weeklong conference, which included field trips. The camaraderie was exceptional. We had comfortable rooms at a government-owned dive resort, with buffet-style meals.

Elsewhere, I stayed in “casa particulares,” government-regulated private accommodations comparable to bed-and-breakfast lodging in the States. Of the seven places I stayed, the rooms were well-kept, had a private bath, hot water, and AC; and some came equipped with a refrigerator, telephone, and TV. Rooms with a kitchenette went for US$42/night, without a kitchen for $30/night (price is the same for two guests). Hosts (all super-friendly) occasionally serve dinner for an extra $10/person, and most serve a full breakfast for $6 (typically eggs, sausage, bread, a plate of fresh fruit, juice, and coffee/tea).

Yes, the Cuban diet is far less varied than outsiders are accustomed to, but I found the food healthy, appetizing, and often elegantly served. Towns are orderly and clean, and the people appear to be in better physical shape than most Americans (Cubans don’t live on junk food and have no McDonald’s, Taco Bells or other fast-food restaurants in their country). For a realistic overview of food rationing in Cuba, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_Cuba I drank bottled water throughout my stay but ate all freshly prepared fruits and vegetables without any digestive upsets. Given my record of food-related ills suffered in Mexico, I was pleasantly surprised by this experience.

After the conference, I rented a car and hired guides to help me to explore areas west and south of Havana. Most roads are unmarked so having a guide made the experience more enjoyable and productive. My primary goal was to photograph species unique to Cuba, a tall order given that 35% of the 34 species of mammals are endemic (mostly bats); 7% of the 368 species of birds are endemic; 83% of the 166 species of reptiles are endemic; and 95% of the island’s 62 species of amphibians are endemic. I succeeded in photographing 5 species of birds, one mammal, 12 reptiles, 4 frogs/toads, 2 orchids, and 9 species of land snails, all of which are unique to Cuba! And of course I couldn’t resist photographing Cuban culture, ranging from cigar box art and ox carts to vintage American cars and toys made from discarded aluminum cans.

Needless to say, I had generous help along the way from several Cuban biologists. Some species were photographed in captivity, others in the wild. I spent about two hours in Cuba’s Natural History Museum documenting endemic land snails, which I compiled in Photoshop to make my 2010 holiday e-card. Although these colorful land snails are protected by Cuban law, they remain treasured by collectors and are becoming scarce. Stopping those who supply them to domestic and international markets has been an on-going conservation concern.

On one closing note, I’d like to add that Cuba stands among the world’s leaders in their active support for conservation. Fidel Castro’s regime has contributed much to the island’s ecological well-being, partly by default but much by design. More than 22% of Cuba’s land is under some form of protection, proportionally among the highest worldwide (http://www.nationalparks-worldwide.info/cuba.htm — this is a website you won’t want to miss if you are planning a trip to Cuba).  ~ TW

Holiday greeting card featuring land snails unique to Cuba, most in the genus Polymita, commonly called "Painted Snails."

Vendor in a Havana Art Market selling loose Polymita land snails and jewelry made from them as souvenirs for tourists.

]]> http://www.wildhorizons.com/wp/2010-iguana-conservation-conference-in-cuba/feed/ 0 http://www.wildhorizons.com/wp/november-18-2008/ http://www.wildhorizons.com/wp/november-18-2008/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:45:02 +0000 adminwh http://www.wildhorizons.com/wp/?p=826 A storm was brewing when my plane touched down in San Jose, Costa Rica, late at night. After making my way to a motel in Santa Ana, I crashed around 1:00a.m.  Just as I was about to doze off, the room began to rock. I wasn’t sure at first if this was a low blood sugar attack, a poorly constructed hotel shaking under heavy gusts of wind (I was on the second floor), or an earthquake.  After three rounds of rocking and rolling, I decided it must be a quake – on the plane I had read that there are active volcanoes near San Jose.  The next morning, I learned we were rocked by a 6.4 quake centered in the Pacific Ocean off the Panamanian coast . . . a bad omen perhaps.

Wind and rain changed my plans over the next few days.  This was the first of two big storms from the north that hit the Caribbean side of the country while I was there, flooding the lowlands and displacing about 40,000 people from their homes. So I focused on five other regions:  the Central Valley west of San Jose; Quepos and Manuel Antonio on the Pacific Coast; the Monteverde cloud forest; Arenal Volcano (and hot springs); and La Paz Waterfall Gardens north of San Jose.  To get around, I rented a little Suzuki Jimny 4×4.  But driving is more of a challenge than fun in Costa Rica, a bit like being IN a video game, especially frustrating because street names and building numbers are virtually non-existent.  Had it not been for a GPS unit I rented with the vehicle, finding places would have become one misadventure after another.

One of my favorite shooting locales in Costa Rica turned out to be the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, a private reserve near the epicenter of a 6.2 earthquake that struck a month after my return to the States.  The quake and its 2000 aftershocks triggered more than 246 landslides in this steep, mountainous, rain-drenched terrain near Poas Volcano.  About 40 people died, 2,238 people were displaced from their homes, and 128,135 people in 61 communities were impacted in the nation’s Central Valley (Costa Rica is a little smaller than West Virginia). Repairs to roads damaged by the landslides are expected to cost $15 million (in a country with a Gross Domestic Product of only $26 billion).  So for Costa Rica, this was a significant disaster; even though it came through international news as little more than a blip on their radar.

La Paz’s centerpiece attraction is a precipitous gorge cut by a cascading river, accessible via a walkway (at least 1/4 mile long) with stairways engineered into the cliff, bringing visitors close to the roar and spray of the waterfalls — truly an awesome attraction. I carried an umbrella to protect my camera gear from the spray. Reports suggest that landslides destroyed this cliffside trail with its gazillion steps and lush tropical overgrowth, not to mention the wonderful plant and animal exhibits on higher ground.

Follow-up: Fortunately, both La Paz and the adjacent Peace Lodge, under the same ownership, are being rebuilt and reopened six months after the quake.  While there, I stayed nearby with a Russian family owning casitas for rent on the edge of the canyon.  I fear they may have lost everything in the quake – no news yet on that front.  ~ TW

View of stairway in the La Paz River gorge before January 2009 earthquake, La Paz Waterfall Gardens, Costa Rica

View of lush tropical vegetation overhanging the La Paz River at the bottom of the river gorge before the January 2009 earthquake, La Paz Waterfall Gardens, Costa Rica