Snowy Moods

Shot from early morning to midday on December 26, 2012

After a major snowstorm over December’s holidays, I got up early on Dec 26, and armed with everything I thought was needed, decided to go do some video shooting around the Blue Hills area. The Sun hadn’t come out yet, and the sky was still laden with storm clouds.  It was cold! My plan called for shooting macro and closeups framing the striking looks when snow embraces plants and trees. And so, I did for a while.

As the morning progressed, the sky cleared up and the sun made its shy appearance. The crystals formed on branches and bushes began glistening and sparkling and all trees appeared to be colored with golden hues. The scenery changed totally and my plan changed accordingly. I switched from closeups to long shots, and began panning to capture the beauty of the colors. Whatever eventually showed up in film, wasn’t quite the spectacle that my eyes saw (and my brain remembers). So, here’s my humble rendition of a glorious, cold, beautiful morning after the storm.

Enjoy,

Leo

Autumn golden mist

When the struggle for supremacy between Winter and Autumn – night and day begins to unfold, we can witness amazing events, light, darkness, cold, fog, mist and colors. These are observations beginning with early twilight prior to sunrise and continuing as the day progresses, offering us the richness and beauty of the season.
I hope you’re having a peaceful Autumn, and are getting ready for the Winter.

My thanksgiving wishes to all, for a beautiful season,

Leo
~
Music: Troppo lontano da te – Andrea Rossi ::  http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/752163/troppo-lontano-da-te
Remix by Leo Bar
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photographed during October, 2012 in the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Blooming desert

After reviewing the more than 500 stills taken and crying over the unreadable memory card with more than 4 Gigs of video lost, here’s the second piece on the Arizona desert. I concentrated on showing the brief time during which the desert explodes in color. Every plant, cactus, tree and shrub blooms for a period varying from 7 to 15 days. And then goes into the process of creating its fruits and seeds to allow them to procreate and spread their species. Birds, rodents, bees, insects and wind aid the desert plants to spread their seed and pollen, while attempting to exist, live and grow in an extreme climate.

In this piece I paid special attention to show the contrast of color and nature of some very unusual flowers emanating from huge saguaro cacti and other times from puny shrubs. Every plant flaunts its own version of excitement and compete to attract the organism or element that will disseminate their species.

Split screens, animations, and paintings were included to create a multimedia sensory effect. All other credits can be found at the end of the video

When the desert blooms in May-June it's a spectacle like no other. Every plant and tree that appeared to be sleeping and shriveled, explodes in a multicolored palette as if in competition with each other. Stills and video were recorded in May-June, 2012 in the State of Arizona – Here are some of the locales: Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Papago Park, Desert Botanical Gardens and Cave Creek.
Enjoy the flora (and fauna),

Leo

Sedona – Arizona

The scenes from this video were filmed over a period of 4 days while rambling through the Arizona desert. Sedona is one of the most beautiful settings in Arizona, if not the whole USA. I tried to capture the scenery, its art (known to be the home to many artists, sculptors and painters) and the breathtaking views of the famous red cliffs. As I watch the end product, I didn’t even come close to reflect the full beauty of this place – due to some unfortunate event… In the process of trying to edit a clip, I had one of my memory cards with 4 Gigabytes of video footage go totally bad on me. I tried for hours using software and different card readers (including toward the end a hammer) to recover its contents to no avail. Just bad luck!

The temperatures while shooting were in the high 90′s and many times exceeded 100 F. Not too much fun, despite having gotten out early and staying late in the day to avoid dehydration and sunstroke. Just too darn hot, especially when we were coming from Massachusetts where the temps were in the 40′s (ah!).

Scenery and art from National Parks and the region around Sedona, Arizona. Filmed and photographed in early May 2012. Sedona is known for its majestic red cliffs and mountains. Spectacular scenery surrounds an urban number of towns in the midst of nature, canyons and National Parks.
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Music: Capriccio Arabo – Composer: Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea (21 November 1852 – 15 December 1909) – Played by Maurizio Oddone – http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/797697/francisco-tarrega-capriccio-arabo – Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

Enjoy the trip,
Leo

Naked Trees

This project was a pain and a pleasure to produce. The pleasure involved working (our third collaboration) with Luis Carlos Espinosa Padilla and a great original score. Luis Carlos is a talented artist and musician from Tenerife, the Canary Islands. Another source of pleasure was to be surrounded by nature and staring at 100-year old trees, some older, with their twisted limbs and branches. Even their bark speaks loudly of their age and experiences.

The pain came about while climbing one of them to get a better angle, and being landed abruptly on my behind by a 30 mph. gust of wind. Needless to say, I didn’t try climbing again! Simply because the pain would not allow me and secondly because I’ve been told I’m a quick learner

Despite this mishap after reviewing my filming, I realized that I had messed up some of my settings ending up with many blurry images. So I returned, no climbing this time either, and captured what I thought were unique close-up and macro shots, like a single bee buzzing inside the syrup bucket drinking the fresh sap dripping from the tree… Unfortunately upon downloading the film, (this time the focus setting was on infinity instead of macro), and the bee was nothing but a big flying blob spoiling the distant clear views of a forest!

So if you don’t succeed at first… On my third outing, the buckets had been removed, the sap cores plugged, and the sun was shining so beautifully that my shots were faded and lacked contrast. Not a hint of a breeze, so everything was still and perfect (but not for filming). Although I met a friendly giant poodle that took a bite of my camera. And so, I learned that one must cease the moment, because it never returns in the same fashion.

Enjoy the trip,
Leo

Elements Used in this Production

~ Original Score Music: Luis Carlos Espinosa Padilla
~ Learn more about this artist :: http://lcespa.blogspot.com/
~ HDR photography and film; split screens; digital art: Leo Bar

Autumn Backdrop

This is the second installment of an Autumn outing through Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts countryside. We managed to stay out of main roads for most of th trip, hitting small farming communities and less touristy sites. What a wonderful and reinvigorating trip… It’s (my) our favorite season of the year!

I incorporated some of the unusual animals we saw on the way. Also, I made use of multiple screens (split screens) and other light and coloring techniques on this production.

Enjoy the colors and the landscape!
Leo

Zion Visions

When you are surrounded by the most magical scenery and can hear the silence of nature, you’re probably visiting Zion National Park. Words cannot describe the awesome vastness, sculpted peaks, shades, colors and just peaceful feelings…

I have used a unique approach to create a pseudo time lapse… By manipulating the saturation of an image over a period of time in a graduated manner and directing the angle of light rays from a specific angle the sequence appears as if taken on a TL during sunrise. It was done in Vegas using 3 different effects.

The only problem I had with this production was that I had to edit it over 14 times!! Really frustrating! Everything was falling apart, as I was changing certain parts. At one point I felt like throwing the “baby” with the bath water. This happened over a period of 6-7 months. I had began this project the 24th of April of 2010 (I can’t believe it >> ??%^*%$*%#@!`<< )

This is my way of sharing it.
~~~
Elements used in this production:
Photography all at http://www.flickr.com: James Marvin Phelps; Louis Vest; StephenConn; Tim Hamilton; Leo Bar
Music: Presence by Neils Peter Molvaer
Montage, Animation, HDR, Pseudo-Timelapses: Leo Bar
~~~
Enjoy,
Leo

Colors of Vermont

From a recent trip to Vermont. Went to film, photograph and follow the change of colors. Not much more to say, let the images speak for themselves.

Enjoy,
Leo

Mata-ki Te-rangi :: Eyes looking to the sky

The Easter Island was one of my favorite places to read about as a child and young adult. I was fascinated by the culture, the mystery and the Moai giants. The books by Thor Heyerdahl, 1914-2002 – Kon Tiki and Aku Aku became my bedtime mates. I have read them many times in 2 languages by now.
In this piece I tried to capture all that I remember in my imagination as a child. I never visited this island, although one day I hope to make there…
~~
Elements used in this production:
Photography all @ Flickr.com: Louis Vest/OneEighteen; Steven Wagner/Stevesheriw; Leo Bar
HDR and Art: Leo Bar

Music: Maya by DJanswer

http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/10926?refuid=667861

~~
Mata-ki-Te-rangi, means “Eyes looking to the sky.”

Easter Island – Rapa Nui:
Rapa Nui, (Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile annexed in 1888, Easter Island is widely famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called Moai created by the early Rapanui people. It is a World Heritage Site (as determined by UNESCO) with much of the island protected within the Rapa Nui National Park.

In recent times the island has served as a cautionary tale about the cultural and environmental dangers of overexploitation. Ethnographers and archaeologists now argue that the introduction of diseases carried by European colonizers and the slave raiding, that devastated the population in the 1800s had a much greater social than environmental impact. Introduced animals—first rats and then sheep—were largely responsible for the island’s loss of native flora.

Shapes

This work was inspired by buildings and structures around the world bearing these futuristic shapes. Many of the buildings shown were designed by Santiago Calatrava, although I have included other architects and designs as well.

About three months ago, as I was constructing a tango video, was struck by the unique shape of a bridge I had included in the production. After a bit of digging I learned more about the pedestrian bridge called “Puente de la Mujer” in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires. It was designed by the renowned spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and had the familiar and unequivocal shapes as many of his creations. The more I researched and read about these structures, the more I got inpsired to present my view of it.

I discovered similarities (so I think) between these curved shapes and many of the paintings by Vassilly Kadinsky 1866 – 1944 :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky. I decided to use them as companions and contrast to this production.
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Original Music: Shapes by Luis Carlos Espinosa :: http://lcespa.blogspot.com/
Music is copyrighted – DO NOT copy or distribute

Countries and cities where these structures are located:
Argentina-Buenos Aires;
Spain-Valencia, Barcelona, Sevilla;
Portugal-Bilbao;
USA-New York City, Milwaukee, Denver;
Malaysia-Kuala Lumpur;
Canary Islands-Tenerife;
Australia; Wales-Swansea;
Ireland-Dublin;
Dubai; Canada-Toronto
China-Pavillion of World Fair 2010
~~
Enjoy,
Leo Bar