Monday, December 30, 2013

Connecting With the Past

Before Christmas I had the chance to go up to Georgia and visit some of my folks and run around the woods up there.  I had a great time with my cousins and in the woods but I had an experience that was both unexpected and strangely interesting. 

While walking a road on my great aunt's land I kept seeing chips of rock. By the way they were shaped I could tell that they had been chipped off of a larger rock and weren't placed here by geological forces.  When I picked up a few of these rocks there were marks where something had struck the rock and lifted a flake off of it.  This is essentially what flint knapping is.  Natives used this method to make their arrowheads, spearheads, drills, and blades.  This is what they used to process a deer.

There had obviously been a lot of Native American activity in the area so when I found a larger rock I had to make an arrowhead out of it.  It was such a strange feeling to pick up where a one of the most hardcore men in history had left off.  The man that worked on that rock was a survivor and in tune with nature to an extant that I will likely never be able to experience.

Working that arrowhead was a pleasure and taking flakes off for my own arrowheads was exciting!  I did make a small arrowhead and hafted it to an arrow.  I traded that arrow for a box full of antlers (tools) so I can make more arrowheads.

I hope y'all enjoy the video and this is an experience I hope to repeat... when I'm more experienced. 

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Crunch Time

I need deadlines and without them I might never get anything done.  I have two days to produce two videos.  This is basically a deadline that I set for myself but I told Brian I'd have them all done by then.  Obviously after that I'm going to go back through all ten videos and do some more editing here and there just to up the quality.

So right now is crunch time.  I have to produce two episodes before 2014.  I'm mostly done with the first one but with weather being less than ideal I've got tomorrow to get all the footage I'm going to need then new years eve will be spent editing... all day long!  I enjoy crunch time because I'm forced to focus on the goal at hand and work it to completion.  Also I tend to get blessed with interesting opportunities at the last minute when I need them the most.

Yesterday I picked up the this dead snapping turtle off the road and got to take some really cool vulture footage.


Saturday, December 28, 2013

Amphibians~ Fun Footage Friday 20

Wow, twenty weeks of consecutive Fun Footage Fridays.  I never thought it would go that long.  These frogs and toads were interesting.  It was a new experience for me to actually film frogs calling so that was fun.  Also it was the first time I had ever gone out and found cane toads.  They're so big!  A lot of this was filmed at the pond near my house so I was glad to see a good variety out at the pond.  Also, I got to see what happens when a water hole dries up and the leopard frogs have no place to go.  Talk about some serious population densities.

Here's the video and I hope you enjoy!


Thursday, December 26, 2013

A Busy Christmas Day

Had some family over and I got a cousin that is interested in bows and arrows so I cranked out a real light weight bow this morning for him.  He played with that thing in the yard all day.  He's not terribly responsible so if he does shoot one of his brothers it's not going to hurt them too much.   >:D  Anyway, a pile of boxes quickly turned into a bear full of holes.



Don't worry that form quickly transformed into something respectable  >:D





I also shot a how to video for my dad on how to cut oranges.  He cuts oranges for all the big family gatherings during citrus season (thanksgiving & Christmas).  I edited that out real quick and shamelessly promoted myself on his channel since I edited the video for him and used some of my music.  I really do have a great dad though!
CLICK LINK BELOW!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXka5xCSC3o


Also, being the video/photo guy I was volunteered to take a picture of the entire family.  Yup all 24 of us.  We were just missing a couple cousins that are in the military now and couldn't make it to Christmas dinner.  The little baby is my nephew and I never would have guessed that unclehood would be so much fun! The five generations are present with my great grandmother (Granny (95)) all the way down to my nephew who is 2. 




I hope the rest of y'all had a great Christmas!!!
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Sunday, December 22, 2013

Scenery~ Fun Footage Friday 19

Florida has some of the most beautiful scenery in my totally unbiased opinion.  So for this Fun Footage Friday I threw together some of my favorite scenery shots along with time lapses and gave the viewer an idea about some of the natural beauty of Florida.  Granted, a lot of times you have to get up before sunrise to get to a location that is ideal for viewing the sunrise but it has always been worth it to me.

Time lapses are another component of this video and they're so intriguing to me.  You basically film something that is slowly moving then speed it up exponentially and it becomes swift and powerful.  Seeing the clouds swirl and dance in a time lapse is one of my favorite types of scenery that you just can't see in person but is displayed so clearly after it has been edited.

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy the video!

Monday, December 16, 2013

First Primitive Hunt

Well, it wasn't totally primitive.  I wore modern clothes and shoes.  I know, lame.  My bow and arrows are all primitive though.

I got out in the woods around 7:30 and the sun was just starting to peek over the trees in the distance.  The temperature was 31 degrees Fahrenheit in central Georgia and that is as cold as I have felt it all year.  It was a shock to me but I just toughed it out, like the rest of the country is doing.  I saw several deer all the way up to around noon.  The deer were out in full force.  However, I can't shoot deer cause I don't have a Georgia hunting license so all I can shoot are pigs and armadillos, which aren't regulated.  I saw lots of pig tracks, some of which were huge, but none were seen or heard.

Regardless, it was a really nice day in the woods.  I can always learn from these experiences even when I don't succeed.  I've got a few more days of hunting.  I really want to prove that what I've made is up to the task of harvesting big game.


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Nature had Other Plans

This morning I wanted to get footage of ospreys catching fish to complete the episode on raptors.  I found some ospreys but most of them were sitting on power lines and that's no good.  Another was eating a fish on a power pole.  I got footage of them but ideally I wanted them on more natural things like a dead tree limb.  They weren't catching fish either.  They weren't even trying.  I saw several and they were all just sitting there.  I'm not really sure what they were waiting for so I moved on to other areas. 

I headed east toward Mosquito lagoon and decided to look for ospreys over there.  There were a few but they were grounded as well.  During the quest after fishing ospreys I came across the most benevolent alligator.  Okay, he was about as benevolent as an alligator can be I guess.  This alligator had a lot of character.  It was scarred sporadically from head to tail.  The tail was heavily scarred compared to the rest of the body.  The tip of its upper jaw was missing, which made it look like he had a severe under bite.  He was kind of funny looking but with all those scars I wasn't about to make fun of him. 

I approached cautiously and got the camera rolling.  I got my wide, close, and detailed shots.  I approached even closer to get some low shots of the teeth and I figured this would cause him flailing back into the water.  But no he just sat there and didn't move a muscle.  Then I sneaked around so he was between me and the camera and talked about how cool he was.  As I messed with those shots I found myself getting closer and closer until I was right beside him.  The whole time I kept an eye on him waiting for the slightest move that would trigger my flight response but it never came.  Being in that kind of proximity with such a powerful animal was incredible.  I was glad to meet him even though he seemed indifferent.  This beat up alligator with an under bite is a star in my eyes and an incredible survivor.  I very much hope to meet him again.


Monday, December 9, 2013

Success Can be Bitter-Sweet

I've mentioned my friend that hunts with a hawk.  I've been filming with him on several hunts and last Saturday his hawk finally connected!  It was incredible to witness the hunt and to watch how the hawk ate the squirrel.

A successful hunt was the sweet part but I wasn't able to get the "shot"... so that was the bitter part.  I was keeping up with the hawk as we made our way through the woods.  She saw a squirrel on the other side of a clump of trees and my view was totally obstructed.  All I heard was a crash in the bushes and that was it.

I was hoping to get a clear shot of the hawk grabbing a squirrel right off a limb in plain view.  I've seen videos of harpy eagles grabbing sloths off of branches in the canopy of the jungle so why couldn't I get my shot?  I now have a better realization of how much of our wildlife documentaries are staged.  In my birds of prey video I will not try to hide the fact that this hawk belongs to someone and that we are intentionally try to stir up squirrels for her to catch.  I will be honest to the audience.

Posted a few pictures over on the Primitive Tim Facebook page the day it happened.  Here they are!


Friday, December 6, 2013

Freshwater Fish~ Fun Footage Friday 17

I like fish and in Florida's freshwater springs there is always an abundance and a variety.  Many of the fish are unique to this part of the world while others, like talapia, have been spread all over the world even to some of the most remote islands.  While fish generally get overlooked, especially native ones, there is simple beauty and grace in them that you don't find in other animals.  There's something mesmerizing about how they gently sway back and forth to maintain their position against the current.

This video has footage from three different locations in the state of Florida.  I went to Silver River, Blue Springs, and Cherokee Sink.  All these bodies of water host bountiful amounts of fish with the springs having a greater variety.

I hope y'all enjoy this video!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Shots

I'm constantly thinking of new ways to film an animal or their activities in the wild.  The idea is to keep the viewers impressed.  I want them to think about how I got great shots.  No matter how short the clip may be I'm not going to let that be a factor.  For example, if I want to get a shot of an eagle flying from above when I'm only going to show it for a few seconds then I'm going to give it a try time after time until I've deemed it impossible.

There are two shots that we're working on now.  One is a shot of a birds eye view zipping through the forest.  So we'll put the camera on a zipline and send it through the forest.  Gotta love a GoPro!  The second shot will also require the use of a GoPro.  I'm going to grab a roadkill raccoon or opossum and clean out the body cavity and put my GoPro in it facing out.  I think it will be really cool to get a shot of vultures picking away at the carcass from the inside.  All those goofy looking bald heads picking away at the rotten flesh could be kind of awesome. We'll see how it goes.


Sunday, December 1, 2013

Bowstrings-The Overlooked Necessity

Probably one of the most overlooked elements of primitive archery is the bowstring.  Yet, without a bowstring your bending stick is pretty much useless.  Now days many people use synthetic materials that are lighter weight and faster. 

I've done a fair bit of research on what was historically used and there is a wide variety of materials you can use.  Everything from squirrel hide and cat gut to cannabis fibers and silk.  What you're looking for is high tensile strength, low weight, and little to no stretch in the string.  When these factors are ideal the most amount of energy is transferred from the bow to the arrow.

When making strings I have to also consider what is available to me personally.  Do I want to take an animals life for it?  I don't especially enjoy killing animals so I try to get around it if I can.  In this latest case I didn't even have to kill a plant. 

I found a rather large agave plant and took one lower leaf.  Using my bare hands I processed the fibers out and got rid of the plant flesh.  I was left with a large mess of nice white fibers.  They were real nice!  I took a few and started reverse wrapping a thin string.  I just kept going until the fibers were gone.  I made sure I kept the diameter of the string constant down the whole length.  This is extremely important.  Once that was done I found the middle of the string and with a few extra strands did a Flemish twist which forms a loop at one end.  From there I reverse wrapped it down the length of the string.  My string ended up being way too long... oh well!  I tied off the end so it wouldn't unravel.  I tied a double Turkish loop to the Flemish twist.  This is so there is minimal wear and tear to the string itself.  with the string tied to the bottom limb I braced the bow and it was ready do go!  I had to adjust the brace height after the first brace as the string did stretch some but is no longer stretching.

Overall, I think this is a really good string.  It's funny how valuable something like this is when you take every step and make it yourself.  To anyone else this is just a string and they will never know my archery equipment like I do.  It's insanely personal, knowing every wave of the grain in the bow, the effort that went into each arrow, and how many times the creators thumb cramped up when making the string.  This truly belongs to me in every sense of possession.  A wise man once said, "You've got to possess your possessions." - Peter Lord