Kodiak
My stay on Kodiak Island was rather brief. It was shortened in the beginning due to an approaching storm, which meant the float planes need to get you off the island in a hurry. It was shortened on the way back for the same reason, combined with a lot of rain. All the more reason it pays to be flexible and have room in your schedule to accommodate this type of thing.
The Kodiak Island Group has a population of about 14,000, with most tied to the fishing industry. It is also the largest island in the US after Hawaii, at about 100 miles long and 50 miles across at its widest point. Unfortunately with no car (all transfers were via shuttle), I was limited to seeing the area around the Best Western we stayed at on the way to Katmai. With planes that might call to leave at anytime, you couldn’t venture far. You were limited to visiting the harbor or small downtown area. It also meant if I wanted to go photograph, I would be a bit out of my element since I normally do not photograph many man-made objects.
I produced this short slideshow in Lightroom 2 while on my trip, but Lightroom 2 doesn’t offer many ways to share slideshows other than exporting it to a PDF. However, in the Lightroom 3 Beta, I got a chance to try out their new movie export feature for slideshows, that also allows you to embed music. Very cool. I think movie exports are the best option for slideshows since they allow them to be played anywhere without the viewer needing any special software. You can also upload them easily to YouTube, which makes them easy for sharing on blogs, Facebook, etc.
Slideshow music can also be a challenge to pick out. Photographers sometimes need to be reminded that just like photographs, music for slideshows hold the same copyright restrictions on distribution – regardless if you are charging for it or not. You either find music that is free to distribute, or make your own. Since my guitar playing is closer to running fingernails down a chalkboard, I opted for some playing around in GarageBand which is available on every Mac. So although I didn’t play the background music, it is arranged by me.
About the photos – all processed completely in Lightroom. Except for the last 4 photographs which were made with my Nikon D700 – I shot all of the rest with my little Canon G10 camera – all are handheld. It’s short, only 16 pictures and a 1:55 minutes long, but I hope I captured some of the character of this little fishing harbor. Make sure your sound is on. 🙂 I hope you enjoy the show.
Thank you Tomas, Anita.
I would say I am into music – but quite different than being able to PLAY music. Someday I hope….
Great slideshow. And, now we know who really is into music. Are we going to see more of this side of Mark?
Hi Mark, I like travelling a lot and as I doubt that I will visit Alaska some day I really appreciate your lately posts from your trip to this wonderful part of the world. This post is no exception. All photos are great and some of them excellent (for me mostly those with repetiting subjects such as ropes and chains). Great choice of music, too!
Thanks a lot Richard.
Very graphic image Mark. Despite your reticence, you seem like a natural at this!
Good note on the music as well.
Mark, I am really glad that I saw this post. Just recently I have started looking into multimedia slideshows…just doing a bit of reading as an introduction, so I really enjoyed seeing what you put together and it really does give a feel for the area you photographed and the music really seems to fit the mood extremely well…so great job! Have you made many like this?
I have also given some thought to some of the issues you brought up concerning music and copyright and also similar thoughts regarding use of poetry along with images and copyright issues.
Great black and white images by the way!
Thanks Howard. I haven’t made many. I made a much larger one that covers an overview of my Alaska trip, but it is much too large in file size to post online. Since that one is longer than one song, I ended up using iMovie for it instead. Lightroom 3 certainly made it a lot easier because I didn’t have to export JPEGS and import them into iPhoto – however, iMovie offers many more options in transitions, multiple music pieces, title slides, and some other things.
Thanks folks.
@ Royce – yeah, I actually found myself taking the same approach that I take in the woods.
@ Amber – Actually some songs from NIN’s Ghosts might work. But that darn copyright thing. 🙂
Hey, cool slideshow and great job with the musical arrangement. Too bad you couldn’t use NIN, but the gentle instrumental was a nice substitute. Seriously though, I like the monotone of the piece and seeing Kodiak. Alaska is definitly on my list!
Evocative images, good sound track – a nicely put together piece of work. B&W suits it.
Mark, I wouldn’t say you were out of your element, if that element is creativity. 🙂 Not many harbor towns in Alberta but it seems like the kind of place a person with a good eye could find many interesting things, as your set here shows. Nice work. Cool way to package up the slideshow as well…
Nice, Mark! Hmmm… I looked in Garageband, but didn’t spot the “generate music for nature photo slideshow” button – is that an iLife 09 feature? If it’s any harder than that, I’m out of luck… :^D
– Jack
Jack, I never said it was THAT easy! 🙂 But there are buttons that sort down the available music by mood, instrument type, etc.
Great job on the photos mark. And video is also great but try to make it with a bit shorter intervals for images to change faster and will be perfect. Great job anyway. Will follow you in future.
Great images and I’ve very impressed with the music compilation. You Mac owners have all the fun!
Thanks Roberta. Garageband can be a lot of fun to play around with – it takes awhile to sort through all of the various samples they have. But once you find some you like, you can start layering, looping, etc., until it sounds right.