Until quite recently, I had never tried to create videos with my iPhone and still have not tried to do so with my DSLR camera. I guess that I am a little old-fashioned and think of a phone as primarily a device for making phone calls and a camera as a device for taking still photos. I am gradually changing to using my phone for texting and during my recently completed road trip, I played around with taking short videos with my iPhone. Maybe it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks.
The change was prompted in part by the fact that I had to radically change my shooting habits when visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. I camped out at the park for two nights when I was headed westward towards Seattle and another two nights on my return trip eastward to Virginia. At that park, I got used to seeing large creatures like American Bison (Bison bison) at close-range and photographing them from inside my car. Suddenly it dawned on me that videos would be an effective way of capturing some of that action. In addition to bison, I also had several encounters with wild horses that I was able to document in videos.
As you probably noticed, the first image is not a video—I inserted it so that an image would show up as a thumbnail in the “Reader” feed for those who view my postings in that way. The still photo shows a large bull moving down the recently repaved roads of the park. At that time they had not yet painted lines on the road, so I had to pay a lot of attention while driving, given that many of the roads were full of curves and and in some cases there were steep drop-offs. I do not think that the bison cared about the lack of lines—as far as I was concerned, they owned the roads and always had right-of-way.
The first video shows one of the huge male bisons that I encountered on the roads at the national park. I was safely inside of my car when I took this video, though I must confess that this bull bison looked to be almost as big as my KIA Soul and may have outweighed it.
The second and third videos show bands of wild horses that I encountered at separate locations in the park. I was particularly impressed by the beauty of these horses and it was cool to capture them in action.
I was not sure how to present videos here in WordPress, but I think it works to post them to YouTube first and then to embed a link to that posting here. In this way, the videos do not count against my data allowance on my WordPress plan.
I definitely need to improve on my skills as a videographer, but I am happy with these initial results. The sound quality is still a problem, because it was often windy and the video also includes some extraneous conversation. I may have to learn to do voiceovers for the videos or to add some music to them.
So what do you think? These little clips are definitely a change from my normal content, but I thought it would be a fun way to share some of my experiences more directly with all of you. As you probably noticed, the first image is not a video—I inserted it so that an image would show up as a thumbnail in the “Reader” feed for those who view my postings in that way.
Here is the YouTube link for the first video.
Here is the YouTube link for the second video.
Here is the YouTube link for the final video.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Didn’t get the video.
____________________ Holly S Hoxeng 5981 Chivalry Dr Colorado Springs CO 80923 303-877-5373 (c) 719-574-0176 (h)
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I was worried that might be the case for folks who get the content e-mailed to them–the posting has embedded links and does not contain the video content itself. Can you see them when you access the posting through WordPress with this link? michaelqpowell.com/2022/08/14/playing-with-video-for-wildlife/
Magnificent horses and bison – thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thanks so much for your positive feedback. I never quite know how others will respond when I try something different than usual in terms of content or process.
It was wonderful seeing all three videos. The bison is HUGE!
BTW in WP Reader I can see the still bison photo you mentioned but when I’m at the normal view of your blog I don’t see the still photo.
Thanks for the feedback, Liz. I set the still image to attract the attention of viewers, but wanted to focus the blog on my video experiments. Normally if I have three or more images in a posting, I really small thumbnails in WP Reader, instead of one larger one. I wasn’t sure how WP handles embedded videos, so I included the still image as only the featured image. I will try putting it into the text and see how WP handles it.
Thanks, Liz. FYI, I inserted the still photo into the text to remove the disconnect you mentioned in another comment.
So you have.. just went and checked! What an animal.
Such fun! Enjoy!
Blue Rock Horses Frederick County, Virginia bluerockhorses.com
Thanks, Mitzy.
OK, first you nailed the video. Smooth and you didn’t force the subjects, let them slide in and out. The last video following the horse’s worked great. Just a WOW post.
BTW, the link worked well on an IPad in Reader. Most things don’t. Also a combination of Reader and Tablet is the most common method of viewing posts in WP.
Thanks for the feedback, Ted, about the subjects as well as about the process of posting. I guess I now am going to have to learn a bit more about editing the clips. I did not do any editing on the clips that I used, but there are several others that I definitely will need to trim.
I don’t do video because of the post processing. Tedious 🥺
I love them, Mike! What a beautiful trip ~some of my favorite places. Like you, I upload videos to YouTube and then paste a link. Great job! 👏🏻
Great videos! I use my iPhone for all my work, and except for birds, it does a pretty good job. If you want to do voice overs or music there are several apps that can help. I like iMovie and Clips, but there are plenty of others, too. Your friend Cindy probably had some good suggestions. Have fun with it!
Thanks. I have iMovie and am sure there are other easy options. It’s kind of a mental thing where I currently have to consciously think about using my iPhone to take photos and/or videos. My initial instinct is always to use my DSLR, which is sometimes not the best tool for the job. This recently completed trip allowed me to think more broadly about using my iPhone for short and maybe even longer clips. I also have a GoPro that I have barely used.
I don’t know why more people don’t post videos on their blog.
It’s a good question, David. I think that there is room on a blog for all kinds of media, including video. I suspect that many folks, myself included, tend to think of many of the different forums as single purpose, with WordPress for the written word and still photos and YouTube and TikTok for videos and Instagram and Twitter for photos with only a few words. I think it is good to break down some of those barriers and feel free to express ourselves in any way that we can.
Wow, indeed. The size of that bison is astounding! I enjoyed all three videos, and the action with the horses really conveys something that stills would not.
Answering David P. above, a few folks I know have found that it just isn’t worth for the work that goes into doing good video for the limited viewership. I’m guilty of the short attention span myself when I see one on a blog post. Or the technology gets in the way.
YouTube is the way to go over direct WP. You may have noticed my recent back yard video of the raccoon, which I uploaded to WP. It won’t play in Reader on the iPad, and may come up short in other scenarios as well. With YouTube you know it will work, although you may actually have to go to YouTube, depending on your technology.
Thanks, Ellen. I have been playing around with the little video clips and amazingly one of them has already had over 11 thousand views on YouTube (one with a mother and baby horse). Doing “real” videos could be a whole lot of work, but it might be fun to make some simple little videos, sort of like the kind of storytelling I do in some of my postings. We’ll see. 🙂
I look forward to seeing how this unfolds for you!