Still Pictures Moving

Imagine what the digital camera brought me. Even shooting pictures became fascinating, edit them with Movie Maker and make me a movie. What a joy it was as I learned by trial and error. How wonderful, superb is the camera, ZoomBrowser EX, the Movie Maker, Windows Live Photo Gallery, the Picture Manager. I could make me still pictures out of recordings, make these still pictures gently moving, I could color, crop, resize them, make them like pencil drawings, silhouet pictures and there’s a lot more I don’t know. 

Jesu Joy Of Man's Desiring 2

Diasebad, some ten amateur singers, without having singing lesson, vocal training before, start exercizing, singing in old age of over 50 years since May 1999. Many are over 70, near 80 years by now.

Yet, we’re so proud and happy, we, old agers, still have the courage to perform, sing and enjoy this beautiful, dificult piece.

Though but poorly recorded with my digital pocket camera that is not very sound sensitive, compared to a good tape recorder yet am I grateful for it and have I preserved this in You Tube for us to live for ever every time we were visited.

Ducks Swimming

What The Digital Camera Brought Me

I was a bit disappointed with my digital pocket camera Canon Powershot A490, though I was glad that I easily could take it with me on my travels. I thought that it was just for shooting pictures. But as I read the manual did I know that it could also make recordings. I was so happy when I knew this. I could record my choir, my dogs, birds twitter, crickets, cicadas singing and I thought to record butterflies, birds in flight, fireflies, water spiders, rising smoke from a joss stick, a flame, glowing embers, running, gurgling, rushing, splashing water, live fish, sailing clouds, ... 

Imagine what the digital camera brought me. Even shooting pictures became fascinating, edit them with Movie Maker and make me a movie. What a joy it was as I learned by trial and error. How wonderful, superb is the camera, ZoomBrowser EX, the Movie Maker, Windows Live Photo Gallery, the Picture Manager. I could make me still pictures out of recordings, make these still pictures gently moving, I could color, crop, resize them, make them like pencil drawings, silhouet pictures and there’s a lot more I don’t know. 

As I aimed at the swimming ducks, I only captured a vague picture of them, yet I can darken it to be more visible. I cut away a lot which is superfluous, mute it and paste the parts worth it, together. The tall weeds look like beautiful trees outlined against the sky and I got a lovely marsh  besides to make me a nice video for You Tube and my videos blog. I made snapshots of the recording and again I got  a nice picture and a pencil drawing for my pictures blog. Great.

And whenever I turn out a poor picture, video, I myself  am to blame.

Woman Dalang Singing

Woman Dalang Singing

And there’s the woman dalang (puppeteer), Ny. Kenuk, conducting the gamelan (Javanese orchestra) with her knocking stick: tock, tock, ..., enchanting the wayangs or puppets to life, singing so beautiful. I couldn’t follow her narration as I haven’t mastered the Javanese language, yet it was so captivating. Imagine, it’s something as a puppet opera and this shortened version staged in the wayang museum takes 4 hours, the real show staged in the open air could hold the common folk the whole night.

 

My pocket camera couldn’t capture a sharp picture of her and the puppets, but most important is, I got her singing, the gamelan playing. Where should I start recording, where should I end?

I felt she sings as beautiful as wellknown professional opera artists singing in a concert hall or bewitching as a Lorelei. Just hear her and the gamelan. It is sad when the traditional wayang show will be forgotten, lost.

May 2012