Wedge Evening

Rolled out to the Wedge...and sighted parking spot right there, and just as I did, Giants hit a grand slam...game over for the Pirates...season too...I have no idea what merit was seen in a one game playoff!...anyway, got the gear out of Silver, put the transistor radio in my shirt pocket, and paddled out to the Breakwater Boulders...had the tripod with, and took a lot of clips of Sanderlings and Bodyboarders, not epics, but I wanted to see something...I tried to explain to one of the youtube posted clips of the Wedge surfers in the comments box how I use the canon powershot 50x and the slik tripod with the circular removable camera attachement, and I wanted to see if I knew what the heck I was talking about...I haven't given much thought to how I do my clips, they've always been a kinda make the best of it with gear I have...this to say I don't have a video  fluid head tripod, which is expensive...but the slik tripod I use has a kinda flaw, the circular attachement sits in the socket kinda loose...one can rotate the camera with just light push with a finger...actually, I use my whole head, which is already against the camera looking through the view finder...lemesse if I can describe how I hold and move the camera...the tripod has two short handles to pan horizontally and vertically(see correcting end comment!)...the vertical is on the left, and I hold this with palm up...my nose is against the left side of the camera, my right eye over the viewfinder, and the horizontal handle, I don't use!...that's the important part...I hold the camera in my right hand as I normally would, and can rotate the camera, and tilt it too, so both hands can do tilt and rotate...I have the tighten down knob loose, so the camera rotates freely on the center pole, so it is actually rotatable at two points, the pole, and the circular connector...when I rotate the circular connector, my nose against the camera dampens and smooths the motion...that's really important!...the horizontal handle is backed off and loose...I have to hold the camera up, or it will flop down to the right...while I'm doing clips like of surfers, I watch the horizon, and keep it level...with my peripheral vison in the viewfinder, I watch the subject, tracking, zooming in and out, and, if I can remember to do it, as I often forget, I keep my left eye open, and use that peripheral scene it sees to anticipate what's going on...it's like I'm using three eyes!...and I listen too...sometimes an overheard something will lead me to look here or there with the camera...you know, no one taught me to do this, and I likely cant teach someone to do this...but for what it's worth, that's how I go about making clips!!...clear warm hardly any breeze...picked up from the Boulders, kinda reluctantly as a very pretty surfer girl perched on one nearby to watch her surfer boy, and returned to sit on one of the Harbor View Benches...and took some more Night pics...this time with tripod...on looking closely at the pic of homes, one can see little light specs--a greenish one is right in the middle...those are artifacts, flaws in the sensor that the camera 'sees' with...it's kinda like when a couple rods or cones go south in one's eyeball...they can be corrected in a photo editing program...sometime just with one click...sorta like the click that corrects redeye in flash pics...anyway, tomorrowmorrow, I'll try to upload the clips I made, as I took them with the thought to demonstrate...I messed up one of the sun setting and dissolving, which would have been knockdown...for tomorrow!...oh...to really know how I do the clips one must do the Netherwing Quest Line!:)...oh, in my mind's eye I'm trying to see what the handles can do...if one just uses the handles, as most would, one controls tilt up and down forward and back with the left one, and the right controls tilt up and down side to side--both can rotate the camera if the center pole knob isn't tightened...usually for still pics, everything is tightened down and leveled...one just uses the handles to tilt and center things...and then tightens them, locking everything in place for the shutter release...I think that's how it is...hmmph....and one can use both handles for video, but the horizon is impossible to keep level tracking a fast moving bird or animal, and the fine touch of my technique when zoomed way out is lost...