Rhododendrons in a Thundershower

OK, I have been video taping these Rhododendron plants in my parent's back yard over the past two weeks to show them getting ready to bloom. They bloom and peak right around Memorial Day. Well, the day before that holiday I decided to tape the bloomed plants during a mild thunderstorm.

It was recorded on a standard Sony HDR-HC9 (I have versions of the flowers on the modified camera as well) in color with all the sounds heard at the event. With the exception of the first 30 seconds, which was taped a few day earlier, all this footage was shot on the day of the storm. No major edits were done colorwise to the video. The segments in the rain and at the end were done with the white balance set to "outdoor" to warm up the scene a tad as the image was a bit dull and blue-ish in the rain plus I wanted to get that yellow glow in the end segment as the sun was beginning to set. Asides from fades and dissolves, the only edits to the image were a slight gain reduction in the first 30 seconds as well as the last plus some minor audio noise reduction was done in the first segment as well. No in-computer color saturations done at all.

The close-up footage is really having the optical zoom maxed out at its 10X setting...................I had no rain protection for the Sony!

Special thanks to the Bumble Bee for making a few fly bys!

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• rhododendron
• rain
• thunder
• thunderstorm
• macro
• nature
• Sony
• HDR-HC9
• HD

[sakinehbs]

i just love this video thanks for posting

[MarcusVermilion]

@sakinehbs Thanks! They should be back this May.

[violetjm]

Bumble Bee fly-by at 4:07! This is so lovely. I especially like the reminder that, although we usually hide out from storms indoors, the little bees and the chirping birds just go on about their day. Calm and peaceful. Thanks, Marcus Vermillion, for creating this for us to enjoy.

[MarcusVermilion]

@violetjm Thanks! If YouTube had the 15 minute time limt back then I would have had some more footage. I still like it as-is though.

[ILOVELADYGAGAernest]

RODODENDRAI UMM 

[MarcusVermilion]

@ILOVELADYGAGAernest Yep, they are lovely. Too bad they only stay bloomed for a week in May.

[MarcusVermilion]

Thank you! They will be blooming this May.

[MarcusVermilion]

Yep. They bloom right around Memorial Day. They were there when my parents bought the house in 1976.

[ccm800]

those are some happy rhododendrons

[LucasGingles]

Thanks for the quick response. And yes, rendering HD takes ages, lol. I'll keep you posted once I upload some decent HC9 footage.