Announcing Trip to California's Channel Islands, August 20-23, 2010

Join professional photographers Jason Bradley, Kevin McDonnell and special guest Norbert Wu on board Truth Aquatics' vessel Vision for 4 days of diving and photographing California's Channel Islands. Space on the boat is limited, so sign up today! Diving, accommodations, air fills, food, slide shows and seminars are all included.

I will be on this trip as a guest, but will be there mainly to heckle my friends Jason and Kevin as they lead the trip. The trip dates are August 20-23. Trip cost is $890. San Clemente Island, one of my favorite dive spots in the world. Clear water, fairly warm (not Monterey cold!), kelp forests, garibaldi! What more could you want?

Here's what Jason has written:

We are limiting the boat to 23 people not including staff. It will be a limited load, southern islands, underwater photography workshop. We are going to San Clemente island, but will likely do ship rock and black sea bass at Catalina. If conditions are good, maybe we can go to Santa Barbara--unless that messes with the fuel charge. As people sign up on the site I will immediately contact them to take bunk assignments.

More information and the trip flyer:

http://bradleyphotographic.com/workshops.html

I'm often asked what dive gear to bring on a trip. I have dove a great deal in cold waters, and I have most recently gotten very interested in the great diving at the tip of Vancouver Island, at a place called God's Pocket. In fact, I am leading trips there this year and next, the first trips I've led in a long while. Below are my recommendations on dive gear, which apply to California waters as well:

What Diving Gear Should I Bring?

Question:

> It looks great. I'm very interested... Having the opportunity to dive> there with you and Norbert would be fantastic. The "warm water wimp" in me still needs to know -- water temps? 45-47 degrees? I don't have dry gloves. Do you think I'd be okay in a drysuit with thick undergarments, thick hood and thick wet gloves. I didn't have any problems last year but the water temp was low 50s.

Answer:

I don't think that I am that unusual. I get cold just like anyone else. The gear has come a long way in the last 15 years, to the point where diving in 45-50 degree water means very little. I do dive Monterey, but not much these days -- not because of the cold, but because I've dove it so much that it is boring to me now.

However, Alan Studley is far more of an explorer and has some GREAT dive sites there that awed me when I went out with him. They are a bit more work, more wild and wooly, than I am comfortable with, however.

Diving with God's Pocket is easier since they have the boat and knowledge of the currents. I hate to say it, but the animal life is more prolific, colorful, and interesting too.

Anyway, back to getting cold. The best undergarments aren't necessarily thick. I have found, and Studley and many others will agree, that the Fourth Element two -piece Arctic drysuit undergarments are the best. They are not too thick so you have lots of flexibility. If you combine the Arctic with the Drybase thermal bases (basically, thick polypro long johns) then I think that you will be toasty. I used this combination in Antarctica and I was fine.

I believe that Fourth Element has a dealer on the East Coast.

You won't need dry gloves, nor particularly thick gloves. I find thick gloves very difficult to put on and just use fairly thin, flexible neoprene gloves. I don't like gauntlet gloves or gloves with big velcro bands around them; they are just harder to put on.

As for hoods, the absolute best, warmest hood I can recommend (I just used ONE of these hoods in Antarctica last season and was fine; I used to use an ice cap under a hood in past seasons) is the Henderson Hyperstretch Hybrid Dry Suit Hood.

I also like flexible drysuits. I really like the DUI TLS 350 drysuits and have always used them since day one. They are lightweight, durable, dry out quickly, and are a shell. I do not recommend the rock boots and prefer the standard booties. I do have latex neck seals and latex wrist seals. I have Sitec rings put on the suit; latex wrist seals fit into them, and if I am diving Antarctica, cheap rubber concrete mixing gloves fit over them to create dry gloves. No Zipseals (too expensive for me but I have heard good things about them). You might find the Sitec rings to be too big. They do add bulk and do get in the way sometimes, but I am very used to them. They allow the changing of wrist seals in the field very quickly. Then I just use thick wool socks and I am fine.

I hope that this helps. In Antarctica, I use much the same gear except for drygloves, which I can describe if anyone asks.

Duplicating the New Transponder Car Keys

If you buy a newer car, you'll find that having a spare key for the car made at your dealers will cost $150 to $200. Ouch! This is because the newer cars require transponder keys. The keys need to be cut as before, but they also have electronics in the fob that communicate with the car itself.

I read about getting transponder key "blanks" in a newspaper column a few months ago, and I ordered keys for our cars. One is a 2008 Toyota, and the other is a 2010 Subaru. The newspaper column made it seem that the process was easy -- just go to the internet stores that the column recommended, buy the transponder keys, and you are basically done. I'm here to tell you that it is not so easy.

Getting a blank transponder key is only the first step. Once you have a blank key (the one for my Toyota cost $15), you have to find a locksmith that has the proper programming tools and program for your car. No locksmith in the Monterey, California area where I live could do this for me. The dealers, of course, refuse to do this. I called the internet store to ask for a solution and they recommended that I consult a web directory to find auto locksmiths in my area. I did so, and I found the names of a few auto locksmiths in the San Jose area, about a 2 hour drive from Monterey.

Out of four auto locksmiths that I called, only one person was remotely friendly or helpful. All the others quoted a price of $150 or more, or acted like they did not understand what I wanted to do. I drove up one weekday on other business and stopped off at Schwenk Lock & Safe, near Valley Fair shopping mall in San Jose. The owner, Yevgeny, was a jovial, very nice and helpful person. He berated be (nicely) for buying a transponder key on the internet, and then spent a good 30 minutes getting my key to work. He warned me continually that it was possible that after all his work, that the key would not work. In the end, it did work, and he charged me a measly $35 for all his time. I highly recommend these folks. I also recommend that you call them first, find out if they can get the transponder key for you ahead of time, and then bring in your car for a spare key. This will be the most efficient and painless way to get a spare key for your newer model car mde.

My 2010 Subaru is too new for the auto locksmith. I'll be returning the key to the internet store, and I'll post here if they do or do not honor their "no questions asked, no time limit" return policy.




Here are the vendors I used:
For the transponder keys: www.autotransponder.com, 1-866-595-9596. This internet store supplied me with the key "blanks." I do believe that their FAQ page was a bit misleading. It states, among other things: "New keys can be cut from a spare original. Transponder key comes with complete instructions, which require a second working programmed key. "

The truth is, my keys came with no instructions whatsoever. Creating a working spare key from the transponder requires that the actual car be present along with a working programmed key. If I had been told this first, it would have saved a few hours of driving around looking for locksmiths and visiting the car dealer in Monterey.

To find an auto locksmith in my area: www.autolocksmithfinder.com

The auto locksmith that programmed my Toyota key: Schwenk Lock & Safe, 60 N Winchester Blvd #4, San Jose, CA. yevgeny@locktools.com, 408-978-0403.

holy cow, Creative Cow? Why so hostile to a newcomer?

Dear Ron:  (and for my web-savvy friends whom I have bcc:d on this, let me know if I am out of line here, since I am gasping in disbelief at the acrimony arising from my using my email address that says "temp1@****.com"): Holy cow!  I  can't believe the acrimony arising from my using my email address that says "temp1@****.com".  So, here's my explanation.  I have three addresses that I use a lot.  spam@****.com is one of them.  It happens to be an email address that I give out to friends and which I use for personal correspondence and for things like forums,  Amazon, etc.  I sometimes travel for weeks at a time.  I have a Blackberry that can cost me a lot of money to get emails when I am in, for instance, Indonesia.  So, for urgent work-related emails, I have an address that my office and business uses.  I check those when I am overseas.   My "spam@****.com" email address is for personal stuff that is not usually urgent.  The name is something I chose waggishly since it is one that I give to friends.  I usually don't have those emails forwarded to my Blackberry.  That's the background behind the "spam@****.com" email.   Emails coming to any addresses that are spam are filtered out anyway before they reach me, largely.  Now, I do use email addresses beyond those.  Anyone who is worried about spam and values their email privacy would do so.  My "temp1@****.com" address forwards into my "spam@****.com" address.  Using a "temp1@****.com" address doesn't filter emails for spam any more or less than my office and work emails might.  It actually is a permanent email that just happens to be named "temp1".  I am shocked that doing something as simple as this would irritate a forum manager to the point where he sends a irate message to a new member.  You are making a ton of assumptions about me based on something as innocuous as the email address I used to register on your site.  Wow.  It's almost like being labelled a nerd just because my name is Norbert and I am Chinese in descent.  Holy cow again! 

--   Norb 

On 4/17/10 7:04 PM, Ron Lindeboom wrote:

Norman, Yes, I work hard and I wrestle with high blood pressure and so sometimes I get bitchie. But as I said: we take offense at "temp" addresses that are used in our site. You take offense that someone MIGHT send you something from here and so you use it. If you don't like our site, don't use it. I will gladly turn off your account as I am always ready to cull the herd, even when it's someone whom we own one of their books in our library. (Your Antarctica title.) You DID say our work was spam, by using the temp address -- you even admitted it was used to avoid spam. We got the message.

Dear Ron: Wow.  Maybe you have been working too hard.  I have that problem often, but I try not to flame new clients or new contacts.   Sorry for the email that voiced my concerns, but perhaps you can take it as constructive criticism rather than bringing in the three irrelevant responses you gave: 1.  We spent over 8 million dollars building this and we do it our way. How much you've spent on the site was not relevant to my email to you.  I am actually impressed by the site, but obviously it is not welcoming to new members. 2.  We weren't impressed by you, either. How could you have been impressed or unimpressed by a brand-new member of your site? 3.  we are offended by people who think all our work and effort is spam. Now, where did I ever say this? Holy crap, creative cow.  And Ron.

On 4/17/10 12:41 PM, Ron Lindeboom wrote:

We get lots of these temporary email account sign-ups, Norbert, and we turn them off. Yes, we are indeed autocratic and we also don't apologize for it. We spent over 8 million dollars building this and we do it our way. Weren't impressed by us? We weren't impressed by you, either. This site isn't on auto-pilot. And just as you are offended by autocratic site admins, we are offended by people who think all our work and effort is spam. Please don't feel the need to contribute if you don't want to, we have over 2 million people a month that do. We keep the serious ones who sign up for real and we toss the others. We call it "culling the herd."

What? What kind of message is this to send to a new user? Has an email sent to temp2@****.com bounced yet? Is there a reason to give a new user this negative feeling of having joined some kind of autocratic organization? I am a 25-year veteran of photography and filmmaking.  I have multiple email addresses to avoid spam. I have a lot to contribute to a forum, but this message, and the incredible amount of administrative governance that I've encountered so far make me far less inclined to contribute to this forum or to even visit it.   Just posting my first thread and getting a warning every time I posted a reply that it would be monitored, as well as the arrogance exhibited by one of your "experts", has left a very bad taste in my mouth. Wow.  I am not impressed with Creative Cow. Norb

On 4/17/10 11:16 AM, Ron Lindeboom wrote: Hello Norbert, I wanted to point out that the account using temp2@****.com will be deactivated the first time that the email bounces. That is our policy. Best regards, The COW Team ********************* Parts of my original post to the forum and a surprisingly hostile reply: For the full thread, read: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1081667 Note that each time Norb posted to the forum, he got a warning message that his message was being moderated for quality or substance before being released.  digitizing HDCAM library to ProRes422HQ process by Norbert Wu on Apr 5, 2010 at 1:06:47 pm Hi folks: I am hoping that I can get some suggestions from folks here. Thanks in advance. I have a library of about 250 HDCAM tapes that I hope to digitize to the ProRes422HQ format. Here is my plan, and I wonder if anyone sees any glaring errors in it or has suggestions to go this more efficiently or cheaply. Am I missing anything? 1. I will buy a used Sony J-H3 HDCAM deck to play back the tapes. This will give me an SDI output. I plan to sell the J-H3 deck after digitizing my tapes. I could also buy a J-H1 deck which outputs component HD, but I’ve heard that SDI will give a cleaner signal. It does seem that J-H3 decks sell more quickly and there is more demand for them than the J-H1 decks. 2. I’ll take the SDI output from the J-H3 deck and feed it into a Matrox MXO2 LE box. 3. My Mac tower will do most of the computing work. I will take the output from the Matrox box and convert it using Final Cut Pro version 6 (the latest I have), I will convert the footage to ProRes422HQ. My Mac is a 2 x 2.66 Ghz Dual-Core Intel Xeon with 3Gb RAM. 4. I have a MacGurus Burly Firewire 800 enclosure. My Mac will feed the ProRes422HQ footage into a Hitachi 2Tb hard drive using Firewire 800. I have heard that I should use RAID to avoid dropped frames, but I am not sure what flavor of RAID to use. Instead, I plan to capture footage to a drive, then clone the drive as backup. I’ve heard that Firewire 800 will be just fine to capture my footage. I’ve heard this statement: “You can capture ProRes to a single drive, but it may be safer to capture to a RAID to ensure there are no dropped frames.” Can anyone tell me what flavor of RAID I should use and how that would avoid dropped frames? My enclosure will allow me to set various RAID settings (software and hardware based, but I am told that the software based RAID is superior: Performace is superior using software RAID with OSX Disk Utility … and not the firmware RAID configured using the bridge RAID configurations). 5. Most of my tapes were shot in 1080i, but about 25 tapes were shot in 23.98. I shoot with an older F900 camera and after digitizing all existing tapes, I hope to sell the deck, and to use the camera to digitize any new tapes. Since the Matrox box has component HD as an input, I believe that I can simply feed my footage using the F900 camera to the Matrox box and use the procedure outlined above. Am I correct? 6. I’ve heard this statement: The only other issue needing research is monitoring the video levels for capture. I don't know if the signal can get messed up during capture. If anyone can explain the above and how I can solve any possible problem thereby, I’d greatly appreciate it. Many thanks in advance for any suggestions on the above. I am looking for a used J-H3 deck and a Matrox box to buy if anyone has one. Norbert Wu Norb ---------------------------------------- Norbert Wu Productions Pacific Grove, CA 93950 USA ******* Re: digitizing HDCAM library to ProRes422HQ process by Shane Ross on Apr 5, 2010 at 1:31:19 pm HQ is overkill. HDCAM is an 8-bit 3:1:1 format. IF it was HDCAM SR, you might choose HQ. But all that does for HDCAM is take up more space. That is a LOT of footage. 75GB per hour, so I hope those tapes aren't 1 hour tapes. Even if they are 30 min tapes, that is about 9.6TB of space. 14.1 TB at HQ. Shane GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD...don't miss it. Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def ******* Re: digitizing HDCAM library to ProRes422HQ process by David Roth Weiss on Apr 5, 2010 at 1:45:07 pm [Shane Ross] "75GB per hour" Interesting, my Digital Heaven VideoSpace widget said 62.04 per hour. Must be because it defaults to 2-channels of audio, when HDCAM actually has 4-channels. David Roth Weiss Director/Editor/Colorist David Weiss Productions, Inc. Los Angeles POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™ EPK Colorist - UP IN THE AIR - nominated for six academy awards A forum host of Creative COW's Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums. ******* Re: digitizing HDCAM library to ProRes422HQ process by Shane Ross on Apr 5, 2010 at 2:39:17 pm According to my AJA iPhone App, it is 75.3GB, with 2 CH of audio. Shane GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD...don't miss it. Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def ******* Re: digitizing HDCAM library to ProRes422HQ process by Arnie Schlissel on Apr 5, 2010 at 3:45:54 pm [Shane Ross] "According to my AJA iPhone App, it is 75.3GB, with 2 CH of audio." Yes, but what does your iPad say? BTW, did you see Stephen Colbert chop salad with his? Arnie Post production is not an afterthought! http://www.arniepix.com/ ******* Re: digitizing HDCAM library to ProRes422HQ process by Norbert Wu on Apr 5, 2010 at 1:45:55 pm Thanks for the speedy replies regarding hard drive space. Hitachi 2Tb drives are $150 or so -- so I am not concerned about buying up to ten hard drives, and I believe my library of about 170 hours should only fill up 6 to 8 Tb, or 3 to 4 drives. That is a tiny amount of money compared to the cost of buying or renting a deck. Anyone see any glaring errors in this process otherwise? Thanks. Norb ---------------------------------------- Norbert Wu Productions ******* Re: digitizing HDCAM library to ProRes422HQ process by David Roth Weiss on Apr 5, 2010 at 2:01:47 pm [Norbert Wu] "Anyone see any glaring errors in this process otherwise? " Norbert, two of the forum leaders have already given you the same answer. What additional info could you really need? David Roth Weiss Director/Editor/Colorist David Weiss Productions, Inc. Los Angeles POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™ EPK Colorist - UP IN THE AIR - nominated for six academy awards A forum host of Creative COW's Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums. ******* Re: digitizing HDCAM library to ProRes422HQ process by Norbert Wu on Apr 5, 2010 at 2:12:06 pm Well, I did have some other, perhaps more difficult questions in my post other than the hard drive space required. I do appreciate any answers to those questions, and I thank the two experts for their answers about hard drive space. Norb ---------------------------------------- Norbert Wu Productions Pacific Grove, CA 93950 USA there's more to the forum thread, all of which was helpful.  David Roth Weiss, Creative Cow: why so hostile?  We're all just out here trying to get along. 

creative cow community for video folks -- dang, weird place

On 4/17/10 12:41 PM, Ron Lindeboom wrote: > We get lots of these temporary email account sign-ups, Norbert, and we > turn them off. > > Yes, we are indeed autocratic and we also don't apologize for it. We > spent over 8 million dollars building this and we do it our way. > > Weren't impressed by us? We weren't impressed by you, either. > > This site isn't on auto-pilot. And just as you are offended by > autocratic site admins, we are offended by people who think all our > work and effort is spam. > > Please don't feel the need to contribute if you don't want to, we have > over 2 million people a month that do. We keep the serious ones who > sign up for real and we toss the others. We call it "culling the herd." > > >> >> What? >> What kind of message is this to send to a new user? >> Has an email sent to temp2@***.com bounced yet? >> Is there a reason to give a new user this negative feeling of having >> joined some kind of autocratic organization? >> >> I am a 25-year veteran of photography and filmmaking. I have >> multiple email addresses to avoid spam. I have a lot to contribute to >> a forum, but this message, and the incredible amount of >> administrative governance that I've encountered so far make me far >> less inclined to contribute to this forum or to even visit it. Just >> posting my first thread and getting a warning every time I posted a >> reply that it would be monitored, as well as the arrogance exhibited >> by one of your "experts", has left a very bad taste in my mouth. >> >> Wow. I am not impressed with Creative Cow. >> >> Norb >> > > On 4/17/10 11:16 AM, Ron Lindeboom wrote: Hello Norbert,

I wanted to point out that the account using temp2@***.com will be deactivated the first time that the email bounces.

That is our policy.

Best regards,

The COW Team

EyeTV hybrid product causes problems

My webmaster had a problem a few weeks ago where Quicktime clips that he was putting on my website had green poster (preview) frames.

I noticed this also. It was random. Today, however, just about every single video clip in my library on my Mac Pro started turning green.

I found this solution on the web, and it solved my problem.

> I too can confirm this, though I am using iMovie HD and showing green thumbs.
> After moving the "eyetv mpeg support.component" out of the folder and
> re-importing the video clip, thumb shows up fine. bummer eyetv affects it like
> that.

All my clips are fine again. I did not even have to reimport them.

I am not at all happy with EyeTV-- not only this problem, but many others. Admittedly, I have an older EyeTV Hybrid stick that has seen its share of use, but still - too many problems for a Mac product.

Why should this software affect all my video source files? That's terrible in and of itself.

I could not believe how clunky the EyeTV software was. It was terrible. If you moved the resulting recorded TV segment, the software would follow it. It usually would not record correctly as scheduled due to conflicts that you would never see. The quality of the recorded picture is terrible, far worse than what I get with a similar setup on a PC. The Titan TV schedule was OK, but for the past two years, I could never see what was on ABC! It always said "local programming" for that channel.

An Open Letter to the Marine Conservation Community

Note to readers: Norbert Wu was selected as a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation in 2001. He spent the next three years traveling the world, documenting marine conservation issues. At the end of his fellowship, he sent the following letter to many of the marine scientists that he had encountered at the Pew Fellows meetings.


I am writing this to a few of you who seem to have an interest in working with the popular media to get marine conservation messages out.

The overwhelming messages that I heard at the recent Pew Fellows meeting were:
1. Things are getting worse, not better.
2. Scientists need to get their message out.
3. Scientists are terrible about getting their messsage out. They need help.

If the Pew Fellows program is serious about solving marine conservation problems and recognizes that the popular media is an important part of the solution, then it needs to enlist the help of the popular media in a fundamental and integral way. It needs to marshal the expertise of the few Pew Fellows that have experience or interest in working with the popular media. It needs to enlist the participation of freelance filmmakers, photographers, writers, film producers, directors, and programming executives. It has to extend its effort well beyond the selection of scientists who are understandably absorbed in their culture and their areas of expertise and cannot direct their attention and energy to effective communication in the media.

The Pew program and its Fellows need to develop a mutual working respect for those in the popular media. Perhaps most importantly, it needs to recognize that getting stories in the popular media takes a professional, committed, time-consuming approach. Getting the message out will not be effective if delegated to "afternoons after I've finished my morning writing." The Pew program needs to fund and support those Fellows who can tell or present media stories, and the Pew Program should make "getting the message out" a top priority.

Here's an example. A recent article in Time magazine discusses how the hit CBS drama, CSI, has dramatized and popularized forensic science. Forensic scientists are rolling their eyes about the dramatic license taken in the series, but this show has increased awareness of forensic science. Forensic science schools report a dramatic increase in interest and enrollment. This is part of what we need: a new series about the oceans, with compelling characters. The series will certainly will hype and over-dramatize science.

Any scientist watching such a series will roll their eyes and cringe in embarassment, as DNA is analyzed in minutes rather than weeks, and the characters encounter adventure after adventure and make definitive statements like "the bluefin tuna fishery is crashing!" rather than "if we look at the attached reports and graphs, there is a 90% probability that tuna stocks are in serious decline. We recommend further study."

There needs to be a push to get marine science into all aspects of the popular media. There should a computer simulation game called "SIM Coral Reef," just as there is a "SIM City." There should be several television series on marine science, featuring buff women and men who would otherwise be on Baywatch, and having plots that are only a small cut above Baywatch (which was the world's most-watched series in its day). We need to continue to preach to the converted, continue to hook up scientists with the media, but we need to take a far more proactive approach to getting our stories out in far more outlets. We need to realize that we have compelling stories to tell and sell to the popular media. The Pew program is ideally situated to help marine conservationists do this. In my opinion, however, it has failed miserably and spectacularly so far in getting any kind of message out to the masses.

I could say a lot more, but this is sufficient for an initial communication. I am happy to discuss these issues and ideas with anyone.


Norb

Norbert Wu
----------------------------------------
Norbert Wu Productions
Pacific Grove, CA 93950
USA