Videos are added in chronological order,
the newest are at the bottom… 17 and counting

Most of my videos are shot with a VadoHD. I love the thing. It’s tiny, has a fixed focus, non-zooming wide angle lens and 8 Gigs of internal memory. It shoots very good to excellent HD video, especially once I mounted a polarizer and lens hood to it. I like wide angle… most of my work is wide angle. So I set about to build a housing that would allow me to add filters, hoods and an even wider lens. Yes, this whole thing weighs several times more than the VadoHD. I feel safe now using it under extreme conditions. As can be seen from the photo, its pretty well protected from abuse, but not weather-proof. I use it in tandem with a Manfrotto Ball head attached to a Manfrotto Super-Clamp. These shots show it mounted to the roof rack of my Isuzu.

Apple’s Final Cut Express & iMovie are used to edit the final video. It is extremely time consuming to edit in ‘HD’ from a laptop. Graphics were created in Illustrator and colorized in Photoshop.

Here’s a couple of tips for Newbies, viewing YouTube videos

If you are on a ‘dial-up’ Internet account, I suggest skipping the videos completely.. they are huge files and will take (almost) forever to down-load. Do you have an hour or so to wait? If on the other hand, you have a high speed connection (DSL, cable modem or some such thing), it should take only a few minutes to down-load. When you start a video, there is a ‘progress bar’ at the bottom of the frame that tracks the down-load. There is also a ‘play/pause’ button immediately to the left of the bar. As soon as the video starts to play for the first time, stop (pause) the video.

The YouTube vid will continue to down-load
even though you have paused the play.

You can see the progress of the down-load as the bar slowly turns red. Once the bar is mostly red (3/4 or better), restart the video to watch it without interruption. Once it has completely down-loaded (a solid red bar), you can watch the vid over and over without reloading it, without the jitters or breaks.

The Scurvy Dog’s YouTube Archive:

The Scurvy Dog’s Puerto Rican Blog Introduction:

My first (ever) edited video and the only one I’ll do with me in front of the camera. This sequence was staged next to an old dilapidated shed near my old place in
Willow, Alaska.

This minute and a half was originally over 560MB’s. I did manage to compress it to 65MB’s before uploading to YouTube.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

The Scurvy Dog’s PR Blog Intro Bloopers Reel:

Yea, its pretty funny… I had a good time shooting it.

My close friend in Alaska, Connie assisted with the shoot. You can hear her commenting in the background. Since we let the camera run continuously, I was able to do excerpts of the stupid stuff.

The weather was nice and warm the day we did this. In fact, 2009 was one of the best Alaskan summers I ever remember. It made up for how down right crappy the previous one was.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

Road Trip- Monkey Isla & Points South Along Highway 53:

This was shot literally ‘From the Road’ as the little Vado HD vidcam was clamped to the roof rack of my Isuzu Rodeo. Unfortunately, its not a waterproof solution so I had to shut it down, once it started to rain. No biggie.

This “muvee” is 3 seconds short of YouTube’s 10 minute limit.

The original clip was over 25 minutes long. The edited (HD 720p) video was 874.7MB’s. Fortunately, YouTube does some clever compression on their end so its a whole lot smaller to down-load and view. The music was freeware off the Net. The first and last songs were by Kevin MacLeod. I love his stuff.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

Road Trip- Above Coamo, in the Barrio Collores of Juana Diaz:

This 9 miunte, 45 second video was shot in the mountains, up above Coamo. Very different terrain versus the first ‘From the Road’ video, but very typical of Puerto Rico’s interior. No Palm trees to speak of.

Its hard to edit down when there is so much to see.

A VadoHD mounted in a custom bracket and clamped to the roof rack of my ride, did all the work.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

Ponce, PR to Tibes Ceremonial Center, ‘From The Road’:

A new ‘From The Road’ video shot with my customized Vado HD videocam.

If you look close, you can see the PONCE letters, just before I turn off Expressway 52 on to Highway 10. This is one long, unbroken clip, right into the parking lot of the Tibes Ceremonial Park and Museum as reported on in my post. I did get permission to photograph on the grounds of the Center. A special thanks goes out to staff and management. Its well worth the trip.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

That Long Road to Hacienda Buena Vista:

Here’s the promised ‘From the Road’ video to Hacienda Buena Vista, from Expressway 52 as if you were coming from San Juan. If you are already in Ponce, then take Highway 123 North. Its a straight shot, sort of.

As always, it was shot with my trusty Vado HD video cam, mounted to the roof rack of my Isuzu. You can just make out the PONCE “P” before I turn off 52, onto Highway 10.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

Coamo to Degetau’s Rock and Back, Part 1:

Part 1 covers the road trip from Coamo, up to the ‘Mirador Piedra Degetau’ located in Aibonito. It was a beautiful day with just enough clouds to give the sky some sense of scale. Some of this video was ‘sped-up’ so I could include more ‘From The Road’ content. Most of the time I was lucky if I was going 35-40 MPH. The switchbacks and hair-pin corners make it hard to go much faster than that. A two-door convertible (with roll-bar) would be fantastic here… An old Porsche, TR6 or XKE would be serious fun though tough on the undercarriage.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

Coamo to Degetau’s Rock and Back, Part 2:

Its all down hill for Part 2. It felt like a road rally in places. As can be seen in the video, we drove on everything from divided highway to crumbling back roads. No, we did not take the direct route home. Since we were driving along several mountain ridges, you can occasionally catch glimpses of the coast on the south.

As mentioned in the Post, we stopped for Pinchos and a cold beer before heading back to Coamo. This ‘From The Road’ trip finishes in the parking lot of Walgreens… DOH!

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

48th Annual San Blas Marathon, Coamo:

This is my shortest YouTube video to date… 5 minutes, 14 seconds. The first part was shot with a Sony Handycam DCR-SR45. The last half was shot with the VadoHD firmly attached to a telephone pole at about 10 feet up. Since the San Blas Marathon runs late into the afternoon, the setting sun messes with part of the video.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together.’Double-Speed’ effects were added with Apple’s iMovie. Music was courtesy Pac DV Free Music off the Net. The winners of the race are the first two runners after the Coamo Motorcycle Police Squadron.. keep an eye out for the runner pushing the baby buggy near the end!

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

Old San Juan Trolley Run up to El Morro:

I had the thought to try and shoot this video since before I ever set foot in Puerto Rico. I had no idea if it would work. The video suffers from the jitters of rolling over 500 year old cobblestone, but I think it came out ok. I now have ideas on how to make it better. I used the ‘Triple Speed’ effect here so as to keep the trip time to a minimum. The trolley moves pretty slow.

Maybe I’ll use my Steady-Cam Jr. or monopod next time.. maybe.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post,
then scroll to the bottom of the page.

Lights in the Night Sky & the Unexplained in Puerto Rico:

This was my 3rd attempt at this so I was getting pretty tired of it.

The UFO model was made from the face of 2 fans covered with space-blanket material, half a smoke detector and a bike reflector. The exterior lights were LED Christmas lights powered by over 24 AA and AAA batteries The OVNI was suspended from a piece of black Dacron cord. I used a small metal pulley spray painted flat black and the model was suspended with nylon fishing line. I rigged up a rod and reel to pull it up the cord, but the slope was not steep enough to fall back down on its own. The strobing and smoke was me down below setting it off while my assistant manned the rod and reel..

I had hoped the light from the bar would spill over and help define the observers, but no. Next time (if there is one), I’ll take a battery powered lantern and put an orange or red gel on it to side-light the crowd. It was still a lot of fun!

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

The Dog’s Blog 1st Anniversary & Slide Show!:

Its been a year since this blog went public, so I’m taking the opportunity to pause and reflect.

4 years had elapsed since building my last Web Site.. many things had changed. CSS, Blogs and Social Media have become the “rule of the day”. A conventional HTML Web site was just not gonna cut it. I’m not in denial about my site. Its a vertical market with limited appeal. I simply intend to be the best damned travel blog dedicated to Puerto Rico for English speaking folks like me.

I hope you enjoy the slideshow, it was built from images used within the Web site.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post

Hurricane IGOR Skips Puerto Rico:

When I told my friends in Alaska, I had decided to retire to Puerto Rico, they all thought I was crazy.

Puerto Rico is not near as prone to hurricane destruction as is the coast of Texas or the Southern States or even New Brunswick in Canada. Hurricanes are just getting fired-up when they pass us by.

Most Puerto Ricans keep an eye on the weather from mid August through the end of September.

The short animation was done to show what a hurricane looks like as it passes through the Caribbean. Capturing the stills off NOAA’s Web site and building them into a Quick Time animation was fun. I added descriptions to the islands and countries and a little music too.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

Las Vegas, Nevada- A Run Down the ‘Strip’:

The late, Tuesday night ‘From the Strip’ video was shot with my VadoHD held out the window while I drove with my other hand.

Being January, it was too damned cold, even with a glove on. My hand turned numb before I got halfway down the Strip.

About 40 minutes compressed to 9 so it zips right along. The music sound track was courtesy of FMA (the Free Music Archive) and features the silky smooth vocals of Lillian Hak and Michael Winkle. BTW, FMA’s ‘Digital Dump’ is a cool podcast, baby!

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

49th San Blas Marathon of Coamo, From the Route:

This ‘From the Road’ video covers the entire marathon route, the morning before the race. Shot from the roof of my SUV with a modified VadoHD videocam.

The original 1.75 hour trip was compressed into 11 minutes. Because the camera tracks with the SUV, you do not get a sense of how steep it is in places. There are a few ‘burps’ in the video near the end before I ran out of battery. Music for the video was courtesy, The FMA.

A special ‘thank you’ to the police for letting me through 2 road-blocks. Otherwise, this would have never happened.

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

49th San Blas Marathon of Coamo, The Runners:

A video of runners from the 49th Annual San Blas Half Marathon of Coamo, Puerto Rico. Shot from up above the 15th Kilometer mark. I got about an hours worth of video before the battery quit. Compressed into 13 minutes, 40 seconds. Late evening sun fading to low contrast dusk.

You can see the helicopter’s shadow as it passes by and the ‘Baby Buggy Guy’ is near the end.

The ‘animated’ old guy keeping folks out of the way of the runners and passing off water is to be commended for his efforts.. THANKS!

To See the Video, please go to the Original Post.

The Rio Camuy Cave Park:

This 9 minute video covers the trolley shuttle run from the main staging area, down to the Empalme Sinkhole. This is followed by a quick scan of the Spiral Cave and sinkhole at the back of the Clara Cave. Then the trolley run back to the main facility.