I was looking through some images recently and came across the shot above. The moon was setting over a black spruce bog along the Atlantic Ocean. A trail through the bog leads to granite cliffs with an amazing view of ocean and coast and a wonderful hiking trail that wends around said coastline. I had been watching the sun set and was now heading back while there was still light to see the trail. It had recently rained, so the peat trail was sodden at best and ankle-deep with cold running water at worst, but it was an amazing place to be, with the ocean crashing on granite cliffs just minutes away, with fresh air scented with spruce, peat and ocean, and the moon observing it all as it was following the sun to bed. One needs to appreciate these moments, so I stood in the ankle-deep water and took a deep breath, and grabbed a couple of shots since I was standing put. Then I heard a crash in the woods, it was almost dark, I was alone and still over 5 minutes from the car, so I put the camera away and hurried on my way. I always take time to smell flowers, but personal safety comes first!
The image posted here is actually a composite. A frame exposed for the moon was combined with one exposed for the tree line — if this is of interest to readers.
I’ve been having trouble sleeping, and as I was looking at this photo and thinking about that evening, I remembered a charming and rather unusual tweet I had read not too long ago. It’s one of a few that I felt compelled to screen grab and it was still on my screen, so I took another look.
Tweet by @halhickel
I opened Photoshop and started playing around. Moon, period, comma; insomnia, sheep. All perfectly related, right?
I took my pieces into Tumult Hype, outputted video, then took that into Final Cut to add the sound. While Hype is amazing for HTML5 content, I didn’t realize until I was finished that it does not support audio output with their video at this time. To be clear, audio works well with HTML5, but I thought to test their video output– after I had finished the animation. No big deal. I still love Hype.
My original idea was more complex, but I really needed a little project that I could finish in a timely fashion, imperfections and all. So here it is, simplified and posted. There is a satisfaction in making something instead of just thinking about it.
To show Hype working with audio, here’s a little Hype doodle I did almost a few years ago to learn some new tools they made available. It’s something else I recently stumbled upon during late night roaming around on my drives. (If it’s not obvious to you for any number of reasons, click on the text in the first line of this paragraph that says, “here’s a little Hype doodle.”) See? Audio works just fine with HTML5. It seems so long ago. The whole world has aged a lot in the past year or so…
Here is a look at the High Head Trail, should you be curious about the granite cliffs and ocean views mentioned above. There is video created by the talented Blair Thornton, and a bunch of VRs, created by me, that allow you to step into an image and take a look around. (Click on the beginning of the sentence to be taken to a new webpage.)
Sleep well. And if you can’t sleep, invent some dreams.
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