1st Mud Day Of Spring...

[Nessie]

...and no visuals!

Sir Tripod III (now nicknamed "Camera-Baby") makes files in some newfangled format that I need to convert! Even the rezzed-down Web Versions are newfangled things! So far, I can't get even a vidcap.

Not to mention, while testing my (very kindly donated, and you're on the forum so "Thank you very much, you nice mud man you!") mike from an anonymous benefactor, I discovered that the headphone jack only produces a feedback buzz.

The new mike and my cheap headphones were absolved of all blame when the guy at the store couldn't make it work with their stuff either. So yes, it's a defect in the camera. Camera-Baby is going in for repairs tomorrow! It's still under warranty but...geesh...it's hardly been out of the camera bag.

But, hey. The mud officially is thawed and useable at Windy Lake. That's the same site I retired for extreme difficulty navigating during the video season, but with all the vegetation flat and dead from winter, right now it's easy.

My spot being on the east side of the lake, it gets plenty of sun! Some water on top, but that mud was thawed all the way down to the bottom. Oooh. Ahh. Thick and gooshy and huggy. I sank. And the clip does exist, just, no new mike on the camera just yet nor can I edit it.

The Sinking Season has begun for me! And so have the lessons. The first one is going to be getting that clip edited and useable.

I like to let you all know when the season ends and when it begins.

Nessie

[chefothefuture]

Lucky you as far a sinking goes
But sounds chilly; was it?

Good luck on the tech side! LOL!

[PM2K]

Congrats, Nessie!

Alas, I have to wait a few more months before conditions are right for my sinking spot... ... but we are getting there.

[bart1997]

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[Nessie]

Yes, that was the first real sinking of the year, and yes, cold-weather gear.

What I shot was a clip of me in my cold-weather gear (waders) marsh-bouncing in the brown cattails. I got the file off the camera but it needs a conversion to play on my PC or import into my video program. I'll try to get a snippet of it up when I solve my technical glitches.

This winter was brutal. It took forever for things to melt. I tried to get out again on Sunday to sink again but every time I looked up at the sky, Mother Nature was threatening to open up and dump rain all over me. I wasn't willing to commit to being deep in the mud in a rainstorm, so I had to settle for examining this other newer mud spot with binoculars. It looked good, though. I am pretty sure it's sinkable already. I plan to try again this weekend.

I visited "Bog Massivia", the really big frozen mudpit, on Friday after work. I cannot believe how flooded that is now. What's really funny is that actual walking trails completely disappear under water in various places throughout that vast swatch of public land...in one area an entire road goes under!

When all that water recedes, though, exactly what will be bared for me to sink in?

Good stuff, I'm hoping!

Nessie

[jack c]

It is the same here in Pennsylvania - all pools of water from all the recent rain. The difference is that, when the water recedes here, there will be no good mud pits exposed. The geography is just too rocky to allow it. I hope that your locality is a little more soil oriented, and that you will discover some good sinking spots, like you have in the past. Good luck, and try to stay warm until Summer!

[Boggy Man]

It is nice to hear that you have had your first sink of the season! Typically, my season begins around the second week of April, since that is usually when our varying daily maximum temperatures tend to start to approach or reach the 20˚C (68˚F) mark occasionally, at least once a week or so, and increase in frequency and warmth as the season progresses. However, thanks to La Niña, which is finally weakening (but not fast enough), we have been consistently several degrees below seasonal normals, being a couple weeks behind, temperature-wise. Our normal high for this time of year is 15˚C (59˚F), while we have been hovering around 11˚C (52˚F), and no sign of any relief in the next 2 weeks. But, no matter how much rain we get, the nature of my Harris Creek slide area is such that the wetter the weather, the better the quicksilt! Now, if only we could get some decent weather to allow me to take advantage of it!

I hope that your "Bog Massivia" becomes a major sinking ground as the season progresses! I have a beaver pond where even the sedge grasses are submerged in the spring, but by late summer, the pond bottom is exposed, with lots of mud, mostly shallow, but with a few isolated deeper spots, including one hidden shoulder-deep hole. An adjacent beaver pond also has a mudbar that gets exposed in the late summer which is of unknown depth, but is so thick that it has to be worked a fair bit in the softer spots.

Let me guess. Your new camera saves videos in AVCHD format (Advanced Video Codec High Definition), that is, with file extensions of .mts or .m2ts or .m2t (which stands for "MPEG-2 Transport Stream"), right? My camera saves in motion-jpeg .MOV format or in AVCHD-Lite .MTS format, the latter which I prefer, but also have problems editing on my iMac, although uploading to YouTube (they accept and convert AVCHD format) and using their built-in editor does work fine for YouTube editings (which I made lots of use of last year), but the files must not exceed 15 minutes.

[Nessie]

Let me guess. Your new camera saves videos in AVCHD format (Advanced Video Codec High Definition), that is, with file extensions of .mts or .m2ts or .m2t (which stands for "MPEG-2 Transport Stream"), right? My camera saves in motion-jpeg .MOV format or in AVCHD-Lite .MTS format, the latter which I prefer, but also have problems editing on my iMac, although uploading to YouTube (they accept and convert AVCHD format) and using their built-in editor does work fine for YouTube editings (which I made lots of use of last year), but the files must not exceed 15 minutes.

Yup. They're ".mts"! And when I try to play one, my computer will not do it! Nor do they import into my version of Magix Movie Editor.

I didn't know you could edit on YouTube. I generally edit before I upload! I downloaded a trial conversion program. I just have to pay for it before it will convert more than 5 minutes of stuff.

Our seasons begin around the same time. I wish you a good one. As for Massivia, 'twas interesting when I went for a walk at its north end two days ago...and I sure wish I could have gotten a picture of one thing...that beaver swimming across the road. I wouldn't say it's exactly ready for sinking yet but that is a lot of water.

Nessie

Nessie

[Nessie]

I hope that your "Bog Massivia" becomes a major sinking ground as the season progresses!

Well, I figure that Massivia is either going to be the biggest quicksand bonanza ever...or the biggest bust in Quicksandland. If there's anything I've learnt, it's that you can't tell a good mudpit 'til you've stepped into it.

It'll really suck (without sucking me or my models down) if it turns out to be all solid under there. But not to worry, I'm counting on Poison Sumac Bog for sure this year and there IS yet another one that should be good (I haven't figured out what to name it yet, but it's small enough to be manageable enough for a model).

I did get the mts-converter downloaded. It is making something out of the .mts files now.

I don't know exactly what it's doing yet. I tend to learn by whacking the mouse around until I get something. It's got a way to go yet, but HD video, here I come!

Nessie

[nachtjaeger]

Good luck! It took me a bunch of tries and fooling around until I could get this here newfangled cell phone to talk to the dad-burn computer.