Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Big Bend Video Shoot

To put some miles on the new GSA I'm riding out to the Big Bend National Park area.  I want to shoot a couple of videos using my GoPro camera and there are lots of great scenery out there.  The map below will show my SPOT track.  Full screen:  Spotwalla Map



Monday 1/28:  Got a chance to look at the video I shot on the trip and it going to need some work to get it into a decent viewing state.  The GoPro camera performed excellently and the resolution quality is great.  I shot at 1080p 30FPS Wide.  But, the points on the motorcycle I mounted the camera created some issues.  I'm hoping I can correct the issues with my Corel VideoStudio Pro software.

I shot over 2 hours of video in several different locations in west Texas.  I had a 64 GB micro SD card in the camera to capture the video.  The camera used up 34.9 GB recording space with 24.5 GB remaining free space.  I'm very please with that.  Also, using the battery back pack accessory I didn't experience any power issues.  It stayed on working just fine during the entire 01:15 ride on FM170 from Terlingua to Presidio.

I'll post the links to the video packages once I get them worked over. 

Thursday 1/24:  Fun's over, time to head home.  Temperatures in the mid 50's by 8:30 the riding was great.  Traveling at 80 MPH out here in west Texas is always a treat.   Doesn't seem like you're going that fast with the motorcycle is as smooth as a sewing machine.  I stopped by Fort Sam Houston to get some things at the military clothing store before getting home at round 4pm.  Always good to be home.

Wednesday 1/23:  Got up, had a light breakfast, some coffee and packed up the bike.  First location was Marathon just east of Alpine on US 90.  I put the GoPro on top of my helmet, turned on the Bluetooth receiver.  I have the Bluetooth remote velcro'd onto the wind deflector on top of my windshield.  That way when I see something I want to video shoot I press the power button to turn on the GoPro, then press the shutter to start recording.  Got a 5 minute shot through Marathon.  Not much in the town.

Turning south I headed for Big Bend, about 70 miles away.  The entrance gate was not manned by a Ranger so I just rolled on through.  The park main office is at Panther Junction is at the base of the Chisos Mountains.  I pulled in and went into the gift shop, presented my Senior card for registration and bought some Safety Bandanas.

Leaving Panther Junction I rode west to the Chisos Basin road.  I wanted to video both going into and riding out of the Basin.   It's a nice ride through some very rugged mountains with lots of twisties.  You'll see once I get the video posted. I had the camera mounted to the front of the bike just over the FLIR camera on the ride into the Basin.  And, on my helmet on the way out. 

Departing the Chisos Mtns I continued west out of the park to Terlingua (Spanish for three languages; Spanish, English and Apache).  By this time I was monitoring the charge on my GoPro camera.  I purchased the piggy-back battery which doubles the recording time but up to this point hadn't tested how long it would last.  I wanted to record the entire distance on FM 170, River Road from Terlingua to Presidio, or about 65 miles.  It skirts along the Rio Grande river which makes the border of the US and Mexico.  Three is no border fence out hear as the very rugged mountains on each side of the river.  Pulling into Presidio about an hour later I stopped at convenience store to check out the camera.  It was still running with an hour and 15 minutes of video on this run.  When I clean up the video I'm going to run it at high speed and find some cool music to accompany it.

Next stop was going to be Marfa to the north.  Marfa TX is turning into an "Artsy Fartsy" kinda place, or at least the locals hope to make it so.  It's big claim to fame is that it was chosen to be the location for the block buster movie "Giant" staring Rock Hudson, James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor.  Anyways, I was just passing through on my way to Fort Davis.  There I did a couple of videos of the local sights including a ride up to the Fort Davis Historical Park.  Then I headed up some beautiful riding roads towards the McDonald Observatory.  The rocky bluffs of this area are spectacular to see.  On the way back from the Observatory I captured both visible and infrared video of the section of road from the Fort Davis State Park back into town.  Having accomplished my recording fun I headed back to Alpine to spend the night.


Tuesday 1/22:  I had a great ride out to west Texas.  The weather was great; clear skies and temperatures in the high 60's.  Got to Alpine around sunset and settled in for the night.  I was going to take my computer with me to do some blogging but decided against it.  The new bike still runs great but I don't think the gas mileage is up to normal.  I'm getting about 345 miles per tank now but expect that to go up as the motor gets broken in.
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I want to capture some video of the scenic byways in the following areas.

  • Approach to Panther Junction
  • Riding into Chisos Basin
  • River Road from Terlingua to Presidio
  • Bluffs from Fort Davis to I-10


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