Videography

Now it has to be said that I am not a great fan of video in DSLR's.

While I am sure some people find the video function on their camera useful, I generally don't use it and worse once in a while it gets in the way, when I inadvertently press the movie record button by mistake (on my camera the video button is too close to the exposure compensation one and although I have disabled the button, so it is only active when I am in video mode, it still gives me a dialog saying I have pressed it, disabling anything else until I have cancelled it )

Some people say that to be a photographer today, especially if you do events like weddings, you need to master both photography and video, or as they like to phrase it videography.

The problem with that is that most DSLR's are not really the right form factor for good videoing. While they may take perfectly adequate video's, to get to the quality of a good dedicated video camera you need to add dedicated mikes, lights, handles etc. After that you might as well not have bothered and bought a decent video camera.

So why do camera manufacturers make a big thing about the video capabilities of their products. Well, it is just another differentiation factor that they can use to get sales. Why buy two camera , when you can get one which does both jobs? They argue. (Of the course the answer is because by doing so you degrade one function i.e the photography, why producing an inferior product for the other, when you could be spending the money making a better stills camera)

However once in a while I too get the urge to take some videos. One such occasion occurred recently when I was taking some more shots of the local power station at dusk and I noticed what is called a murmuration of Starlings occurring over a local field.

Now for those who don't know, a murmuration is a phenomena where Starlings in winter flock together in huge numbers. Just before they roost for the night the flocks dance about the sky in huge patterns, creating one of natures more impressive spectacles.

I realise that still photography was probably not going to really do justice to this, so I tried to video it, to mixed results.

Anyway here is link the YouTube video that resulted from it. Enjoy