Tag: Video

Coyotes Captured on Camera

This winter Rosslyn’s trail camera silently monitoring a fence opening (along the margin of a woods-fields transition) recorded our second most frequent nocturnal visitor, the Eastern Coyote. The images in this post, captured this past January (2017), might even offer a glimpse at the animal frequently referred to as a “coywolf”.

[pullquote]The coyote—or possibly “coywolf”—was easily as large as a malamute… and the head and tail were notably larger than other coyotes I’ve seen.[/pullquote]Although none of these photographs portray exceptionally large canids, on several occasions I have witnessed firsthand coyotes of significantly larger proportions. My first experience took place almost a decade ago while brush-hogging one of the rear meadows. The coyote—or possibly “coywolf”—was easily as large as a malamute and considerably more robust than the coyotes in these trail cam photos. Coloring was mottled grays and browns, and the head and tail were notably larger than other coyotes I’ve seen.

My second experience was more recent.

An almost black coyote/”coywolf” of still larger proportions was startled by me during an early morning orchard inspection. S/he loped away from me across the near meadow, slowly and confidently, gliding through the high grass with a confidence and elegance I’ve never before witnessed among coyotes.

Spectacular!

Coyote Captured on Camera, January 2017 (Source: Trail Camera Photo by Geo Davis)

If you’re interested in learning more about coyotes and/or “coywolves” in the Adirondacks, I recommend friend and neighbor John Davis’s post on our Essex community blog, “Welcoming the Coywolf.”

I will share additional game/trail camera photos of Rosslyn’s native wildlife (including Bobcat) in the near future. Stay tuned!

May 10, 2017
Just Google it!

I collaborated with John Brookhouse of 1o’Clock Multimedia on a “long winded” but amusing Google Search vignette which was part of Redacting Rosslyn v1.0 at The Depot Theatre in Westport, New York in August 2011. Although I concepted the content and story arc, and even most of the search queries, Brookhouse was the video maestro who morphed my vision into a far more creative story than I could have managed on my own.

Google Assisted Renovation

The idea of a digital story about the role the interwebs played in Rosslyn’s renovation had been with me for a while. Google, above all others had been my constant companion, mentor, coach and materials source. I’m certain we couldn’t have successfully undertaken such an ambitious project with such limited experience, etc. in the pre-interwebs dark ages. Or even in the pre-Google days. Do you remember those days? Crinkly paper with sepia images locked up in libraries far away just when you need them most. Bleak.

Google Search Stories

Google Search Coupon: 1 FREE Google Search (Photo credit: Bramus!)

So the vision for the story had been composting in piles of typed words until I saw the inspired and inspiring “Parisian Love” video which was an instant viral sensation.

Finally I had a way to tell my story! I experimented with the Google Search Stories tool, creating a slew of clunky Rosslyn search videos. Soon I realized that I needed a collaborator with more sophisticated videography chops. Brookhouse was a patient and enjoyable collaborator. We’ll continue to work together in the future. Not only did he produce the clever video above for me to use in my performance, he helped educate me about video storytelling. At the time I was a video rote amateur. Now I’m just an amateur, in the French sense, a lover of video. Though I’m still a largely unskilled lover of video, I’ve begun to appreciate its nuances, limitations and unique storytelling potential.

Multimodal Storytelling

I’m especially intrigued with the interplay of traditional (oral) storytelling, print/text storytelling ,and digital storytelling. I believe we’re entering a time where we’ll see further and further blending of multimodal storytelling. This is especially exciting for me in the case of Rosslyn which includes years of photographs, drawings and a vast cast of engaging if somewhat eccentric characters. The opportunity to dilate this narrative beyond the limits of pages, books and oral storytelling is compelling. The opportunity for a more interactive storytelling matrix invites collaboration among many instead of one solitary writer scribbling away from the limited crow’s nest of his own head.

Thanks for diving into Rosslyn’s story. Together we’ll do her proud.

May 11, 2012
Vintage Adirondack

My bride and I credit the vintage Adirondack lifestyle (and it’s 21st century progeny) for luring us away from Manhattan in 2006 to become North Country full-timers. But what exactly is the Adirondack lifestyle? And has the notion evolved from the time patinated vintage Adirondack stereotypes of yesteryear?

Still image from “Land of My Dreams”. (Source: Amateur Cinema)

Actually it’s not so easily defined, perhaps because there are so many different perspectives on what makes living (or even vacationing) in the Adirondacks desirable. High Peaks, Great Camps, cozy little lodges, Champlain Valley, agriculture, hunting, fly fishing, ice fishing, back country adventures, extreme sports, and the list goes on. Although a portrait of our Adirondack experience will evolve out of these blog posts, I won’t presently attempt to define the vintage Adirondack lifestyle. Though often attempted, any single face of of the Adirondack experience is an abstraction, often even a caricature or a stereotype. The real Adirondack experience is vast, rich and dynamic. It is precisely this richness and diversity which appeals to us. It is precisely this evolving character which inspires us to get involved with the people and organizations that have welcomed us.

Image by virtualDavis via Flickr

The video from which the still above was captured, the first in a series of three, is called Land of My Dreams and it was apparently created by Joseph J. Harley in the late 1940’s. It captures a nostalgic (if extremely dated) caricature of vintage Adirondack living, more precisely the rustic “camp” lifestyle popularized during the mid 1900s.

The story takes place on Bluff Island in the Adirondacks, Saranac Lake, New York. My great grandparents had a house that Joe built himself from scratch. The DEC took the house down after a law was made that people could only camp on certified islands in the lake. Joseph J. Harley was an amateur film maker who made many other movies and won awards for them. (YouTube.com)

Douglas Yu (@tourpro) over at Adirondack Base Camp put me onto this quirky vintage short, but he wasn’t able to share much more about the film or Harley. (Note: unfortunately these videos are now private, and no longer available.)

I couldn’t find much information about the filmographer, but at one point he was President of the American Cinema League.

Many of the artifacts that I’ve collected since purchasing Rosslyn fall into this hazy no-man’s land of vintage Adirondack collectibles (postcards, magazine advertisements, newspaper articles, brochures, videos, etc.) It’s challenging or impossible to determine the background for many of the artifacts, and they occasionally include dated or peculiar elements such as the “black face” character in the the second video. And yet, taken together they provide a context for the quirky tale I have to tell. I’ve decided that this blog is the perfect way to preserve and share these artifacts, characters and stories which don’t find their way into my Rosslyn Redux memoir or the Redacting Rosslyn monologues.

By collecting these artifacts into a “digital museum” I hope to showcase some of the esoteric ingredients of the vintage Adirondack lifestyle (and its contemporaneous offspring) which seduced us, aggravates us, intrigues us, perplexes us and inspires us in this new chapter of our lives.

May 24, 2011
Make Way for Ducklings

Mindful meditation on meandering mallards… (Source: Rosslyn Redux)

As a child, one of my favorite picture books was Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey.

Really… Okay, am I giving away too much? Probably. That’s the way of the storyteller!

Make Way for Ducklings cover via Amazon

There was something about those illustrations — simple unselfconscious line drawings halfway between representational sketches and cartoons — that captivated me, that compelled me to try and draw ducklings wandering and swimming. And the tidy little tale about a family of country mallards unfortunately (serendipitously?) hatching and growing up in obviously inhospitable urban Boston.

A quirky story with a dark edge and a lighthearted plot.

So yesterday when Lorri and Carmen — lovely local ladies planting lilies behind Rosslyn’s carriage barn — called to me, I came running with my camera. I had to witness the mother mallard and her entourage of well behaved ducklings, Lorri urged. “Come quickly. They’re almost down to the driveway.”

The duck family (absent father) had appeared suddenly in the meadow near them, and were heading toward the house. I set out to intercept them on the driveway to see if I could shoot a short bit of video before they startled and deviated course.

Sure enough, as I walked up the shaded back driveway I saw the parade bound directly toward me. I turned on the camera and waited, wondering how close they would come before getting nervous and retreating. But this beautiful, proud and totally undaunted momma duck walked right up to me with her parade of ten fuzzy ducklings. Then right past and on toward Lake Champlain. I followed and played crossing guard to make sure that all eleven made it across NYS Route 22, and before long they were all paddling away on the still flooded lake!

That matriarch had promised her brood a swim in the lake, and she was going to deliver on that promise come flood, gawking homeowner or speeding pickup trucks. And deliver she did. My rough video footage, “Ducklings on Parade” only hints at the confidence and determination of the momma mallard.

Cute. Darling. Nostalgic. Right? Wrong! Well, at least partly wrong. Sure, I’m human, and these fuzzy peeps did instantly soften the edges of an otherwise rough week. But cute, darling and nostalgic is only part of the equation. What, there’s more? Oh, yes, there’s more. There’s irony!

You see, over the last year or two I’ve gotten excited about the idea of raising ducks. I did some research, found a catalog, ogled the pictures, read the descriptions, circled my favorites and told me wife. Emergency brake! “What? Raise ducklings so the coyotes and foxes can eat them? Are you crazy?”

Needless to say, she’s not too keen on the idea. There’ve been a couple of heated conversations. I’ve demurred but repressed the desire. At least for now.

So my first thought as these eager swimmers paraded off to Lake Champlain was, my ducklings! Funny how things work out…

June 4, 2011
Rosslyn’s Redneck Yacht Club

I challenge any red blooded American who’s spent a little time in the country to dislike Redneck Yacht Club from Craig Morgan‘s 2005 album My Kind of Livin.

Can’t do it! Redneck, city slicker, suburbanite, exurbanite, whatever… If you give this energetic summer anthem a second or two you’ll be hooked. Scoff if you need to. Turn up your nose if your tastes are too refined for the Redneck Yacht Club. But I’m gambling that the next time you hear it pumping out the window of a slow-passing pickup truck you’ll smile. And hum the chorus. And admit to yourself that it’s a pretty catchy tune.

Here’s a little taste of the chorus. Try to read it without singing/humming the melody. Just try!

Basstrackers, Bayliners and a party barge,
strung together like a floating trailer park,
anchored out and gettin loud.
All summer long, side by side,
there’s five houseboat, front porches astroturf,
lawn chairs and tiki torches,
regular Joes rocking the boat. That’s us,
the redneck yacht club.
(CowboyLyrics.com)

See what I mean? So, your Chris Craft tastes don’t feel comfy with a song about Bayliners and party barges… So what? Stop judging and start bobbing your head!

I did.

You see, for the first year (or two?) that my bride and I were renovating/rehabilitating Rosslyn, Redneck Yacht Club played on always-on WOKO again and again. I don’t remember for sure, but I may have scoffed outwardly (and hummed inwardly) the first time I heard the song. But not the second. I laughed. I sang along. I went out and bought the album! Several years later, WOKO is no longer the default radio channel at Rosslyn, but I still hear the song from time to time. And when I do, it transports me instantly to the days of demolition, of surprises (mold, rot, bad electric, bad plumbing) and a mushrooming scope of work. It also takes me back to a house full of laughing contractors, rambling stories, off-color jokes and meals shared on sawhorses and upturned compound buckets.

April 25, 2011
Morning Meander

Morning Meander, June 12, 2018 (Source: Geo Davis)

My best days at Rosslyn start with a mellow morning meander to the waterfront to watch the sun rise up out of the Green Mountains. Or to the vegetable gardens and orchard to pick fresh fruit while sipping my tea. Or around the property inspecting flower beds and deadheading peonies or whatever else has bloomed and withered.

And by my side, my Labrador Retriever. In our early days at Rosslyn, our dog (and my early-morning companion) was Tasha, an almost snow white Lab who passed away as we neared the final significant phase of Rosslyn’s rehabilitation. Tasha was buried beneath a maple tree that she frequented for, well, shall we say, her morning and evening rituals.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCbpdJJmItc?rel=0&w=500 ]

Griffin joined our family after Tasha, and he turned ten years old this spring. It hardly seems possible. How did a puppy who so recently chewed up the trim (just as soon as the finish carpenters and painters finished) rocket into the early weeks of his second decade?!?!

Griffin was with me during my morning meander this past Tuesday, June 12. He too loves early morning but for different reasons than I, so my sunrise saunter was brief enough for me to get back inside and make his breakfast before he fainted from starvation…

June 15, 2018
Bald Eagle Surveying Lake Champlain
Bald eagle surveying Lake Champlain near Essex, New York.

While returning to Essex from Elizabethtown this afternoon I spied this handsome bald eagle perched 20 to 30 feet above Whallons Bay. He was surveying the glass-flat, frigid (37° isn’t quite freezing, but it’s not far off) waters of Lake Champlain, head pivoting jerkily. Although he never took flight, never plunged down to grab a lake trout or a salmon, I’m pretty certain he was hunting for his supper. Or posing for passersby.

The photo above and the video below were shot on my iPhone, so they’re grainy and don’t fairly capture the regal raptor. But they’re better than a flock of letters, “You wouldn’t believe the bald eagle I watched this afternoon…”

Bald Eagle Back Story

If you’re intrigued by bald eagles, you may enjoy a few of my earlier posts that showcase our local population of bald eagles (or semi-subtly incorporate “bald eagle cameos”). I suggest you start with these:
And next time you’re in the neighborhood, tilt you head back. You just might catch sight of an alabaster hooded, yellow beaked, ferocious-taloned bald eagle. Good luck!
February 1, 2017
Just Google It?

This video is one of several exploratory forays into the Google Search vignette I included in my Redacting Rosslyn v1.0 performance last August at The Depot Theatre in Westport, New York.

Blending readings from my Rosslyn Redux manuscript with oral and digital storytelling, the event was a collaborative attempt to animate type, words and documents into interactive narrative.

I’ve discovered that building a book is a bit like rebuilding an old house. No matter how great the bones, how stunning the view, how well preserved the architecture and design, and no matter how clear and enticing the goal, you can’t do it by yourself.

In the case of our home it took the world’s most intelligent, beautiful and stubborn wife plus a vast community of contractors, carpenters, advisers, family and friends to rebuild Rosslyn. In the case of my book it will take your laughter, your sighs, your heckling (and even your prodding and booing and advising) to build Rosslyn Redux. (Redacting Rosslyn Redux » Rosslyn Redux)

I yearned for that creative tension that exists between live storyteller and audience. Oral narrative is by definition more dynamic, more elastic, more interactive than it’s written counterpart. Each live retelling differs as the storyteller responds to the audience, distilling the essentials and abandoning the rest. It’s the original crowd sourcing!

Suffice to say, this is an experiment, inviting readers and audience into the creative process, into the revision and redaction process. It could get very messy… (See you at Depot Theatre Tommorrow » Rosslyn Redux)

Of course, there’s another notable difference between typing stories and telling stories.

It’s funny. When I rehearse — aloud or in my head — my voice is Bourbon and caramel. Resonant. Enveloping… And then I hear a recording of myself or watch a video, and I’m certain the sound isn’t working properly. Bad mic? Is the equalizer busted? Probably the speakers are blown. I don’t have that pre-pubescent, one-dimensional voice that scurries for the rafters every few minutes. Really, I don’t.

Only, I do. It’s me. That voice is my own. (The Voice of Redacting Rosslyn)

I long for a deep, velvety radio disc jockey voice, but gargling Bourbon and caramel sauce so far hasn’t achieved the desired affect. And so it was a nice reprieve during my performance to clam up for a few minutes and let the video run sans voice.

Here’s another short video experimenting with the “Just Google it!” answer that I through at so many home renovation challenges between 2006 and 2009.

The lighthearted idea winding through this Google Search sequence is the impact that the renovation had had on us. As we wound down we discovered it was trickier to unwind ourselves… After four years of adrenaline charged, anxiety fueled DIY home renovation, my bride and I struggled to unlearn the survival skills we’d adapted.

I’ll post the final version of the video soon: Just Google it!

May 9, 2012