Photographs with Location Sound

[Corran]

Thanks for your thoughts Vaughn! I was thinking a lot about the use of sound with a static image and how it would be interpreted. I get what you are saying with regard to the water movement, or lack thereof. The interesting thing to me, is the water was moving for the image, since it's a long exposure, so my mind sees that and interprets it as movement. Of course I'm not a good judge because I was there and took the image / made the recording so I have a different implicit reaction but it is very interesting.

I am reminded of those back-lit images with "moving" water effects that were often seen in Chinese Buffets when I was young. I used to see them for sale at weekend flea markets and I actually bought a translucent print of a forest scene was I was a teenager that I think was supposed to be back-lit. It's still in my old room in my dad's house.

[Peter De Smidt]

Those are some pretty pricey microphones!

[Corran]

Ayup! These were the first real "pro" mics I bought when my business was ramping up, back almost 15 years ago now. They were actually purchased second-hand from a retired NPR recording engineer who had them custom made in black finish (normally, they are silver). I also have a pair of their cardioid siblings, the SR-30 model, which might be a good companion for directional sound rather than the cheap shotgun I have, if not too far away.

[Tin Can]

Then there were moving scenes without sound.

I remember these well. Now worth big cash.

Scene-O-Rama

[Vaughn]

Thanks for your thoughts Vaughn! I was thinking a lot about the use of sound with a static image and how it would be interpreted. I get what you are saying with regard to the water movement, or lack thereof. The interesting thing to me, is the water was moving for the image, since it's a long exposure, so my mind sees that and interprets it as movement. Of course I'm not a good judge because I was there and took the image / made the recording so I have a different implicit reaction but it is very interesting.

I am reminded of those back-lit images with "moving" water effects that were often seen in Chinese Buffets when I was young. I used to see them for sale at weekend flea markets and I actually bought a translucent print of a forest scene was I was a teenager that I think was supposed to be back-lit. It's still in my old room in my dad's house.

And I remember a Hamm's beer sign at a cafe in Maricopa, CA in the late 50s/early60s; "From the Land of Sky Blue Waters" with the water effect done mechanically rather than lights. I had my first malted milkshake there.

Take what I said with a grain of salt -- it is probably not the majority opinion/reaction. But combining the two should take considerable thought. Like having text with one's images...does add or not to the total. Would the subtlity of a single blade of highlighted grass moving in an otherwise still scene be lessen with the sound of wind, for example. Or can it be inhanced? Can just the visual image make the viewer feel the light breeze on their cheek...and with the addition of sound, can the viewer not only feel the breeze, but sense its direction?

Fun stuff!

[Corran]

The scrolling mechanical scene is very interesting!

and with the addition of sound, can the viewer not only feel the breeze, but sense its direction?

That's what I'm really interested in!

[jp]

Don't know much about your mics but Zoom recorders are great. I work with a drummer who records his gigs with a Zoom and it's a big challenge to make a recording from his point of view, and the zoom does well at it. We've also recorded spoken word for phone systems and the zoom did a much better job than a lav mic plugged into a laptop.

I've been in nature many times and have been very awed by the sounds, so I understand why you want to do it... I've had mixed results.. One video the trees were coated with ice and the wind was clinking the little branches together; thinks icycles rattling instead of leaves rustling... My Nikon's mic was better than my cell phone, but it caught my breathing as well as the ice sounds and didn't do justice to the ice... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaV_24ggX3Y

So I bought an inexpensive TAKSTAR powered mic for my Nikon which does better.. The shotgun style is not so much to hear things far away but to be less sensitive to noises behind the camera or in the periphery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3-5goz5vFQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLzwN-vLNiM I don't do enough with recording sound in nature to own a portable recorder and nice mics. If I did, it would be easy to record it separately, line it up in the video editing, and then remove the camera's sound recording.

So I think sound goes well with short video clips/vignettes of places for me... For still B&W photos, I think of them as abstractions so I'd pick non-reality based sound to go with them... But if you can figure out a way for still B&W photos and recorded onsite sound to work together it would be a good exciting challenge.

You've got much nicer gear to get the recording process away from the noisy person recording, and hope you can get nicer sounds than anyone is able to appreciate in listening.

[Corran]

Audio nerd time

The Zoom recorders are nice but the preamps have nasty distortion in the lower-mids that annoys the crap out of me. This is mostly evident in recordings of band/orchestra music, in louder sections. Not too much of a problem here, but depending on what I'm recording, it might become problematic. Since we are having a nice rainstorm with some thunder, I am recording that tonight because why not? Just sticking the mics out door in my basement. The results in the low frequency area will be interesting.

Anyway, for location recording, I like the Zoom well enough but I always wanted a Sound Devices 702. Those were like $2000 back last I remember. My workhorse for recordings was a 24-channel Alesis behemoth in a rolling rack complete with UPS system. That ain't going in the woods, weighing in at about 80 pounds! The Zoom (actually, an older model) was useful for the location movie production shoots I did. I upgraded to the H6 after that one died and it is a great unit. Still has that distortion though...but I am really sensitive to such things.

I have heard those ice sounds and that would be a great example of an unusual sound to record. I agree about the difficulty with regard to video vs. static images. A challenge for sure. Will keep trying.

[mmerig]

Thanks for the sound and pictures. I really enjoyed them. I have never been to the southeast US, and your photos provide nice examples of some of what is out there.

A friend of mine has been recording out-side sounds for years, in the Yellowstone region. I have not heard his recordings, but he has described his process (and I am already familiar with the sounds themselves). I would imagine that your skills are as good or better (or maybe just different) than his. If you want to compare notes, I could get a hold of him about it.

[Corran]

Thanks mmerig. I would definitely be curious to hear what others are doing. Some searching on YouTube netted a fantastical amount of nature recordings, most of it not very good, mostly designed as background noise (remember CD kiosks at the mall or Wal-Mart selling "relaxation" CDs of nature sounds??). Even searching with "high fidelity" and other keywords found little of quality. I am sure there are folks pursuing it seriously out there, but perhaps not on the top of the YouTube search algorithm!