June 2001 Selected Articles
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June 2001 Selected Articles |
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The big event, June 2 & 3, our annual Pond tour is coming up fast. Twelve Club Families will open their gates to the public this year. Five of the ponds are new to the tour this year and most of the previous ones have been changed or added to in some way. All members should try to make it on this Pond tour. You can get many new and interesting ideas to try in your own yard. You will see a pond with a railroad, formal ponds, informal ponds, watergardens, pond decking, hospital or quarantine tanks and gardening in general. Ponds are a big part of our landscapes and adding flowers and shrubs only add to the natural look and peaceful setting. All this and more can be seen this year as the pond owners have been working hard for this event. Lets show them that we appreciate their efforts and visit all the ponds. Don’t forget to make notes and take pictures on the ponds you like the best as we will vote on them at the August meeting. Volunteers are still needed for Sunday June 3 at the starting points where tickets will be sold and booklets and driving instructions are handed out. Please consider working a morning or evening shift of about 4 hours to give others a break and lets make this the best pond tour ever.
The next meeting will be at Nate & Kate Deaton’s. The Deaton’s have added 2 small watergardens and many new plants, arbors and walkways in the past year so don’t miss this meeting. Water plants are always appreciated by club members, so if you have extras please bring them and a covered dish and join us on June l0 at 2;00 in Mandarin.
FredSUBSTITUTE SECRETARY’S REPORT by Betty...No Todo, it’s Shirley Stone
The May meeting of the North Florida Koi Club was held on Mothers’ Day at the home of Gene and Tina Stogsdill in Atlantic Beach. Fred welcomed the 32 members who attended the meeting at the Stogsdill’s lovely home, which has a two-pond complex, along with a completely separate quarantine area for newly acquired fish. Gene’s newest addition is a nearly complete waterfall which he has located at the far end of the largest pond. It was interesting to see the construction method used and, when it is complete, the addition should give a spectacular display of falling water. And, all the aeration will make for some very happy fish!
Fred gave a report on the recent Young Fish Show. The show, which was judged by Joe and Sherry White, was a rousing success. (As a side note - Congratulations to Joe White, who has recently been accepted in AKCA’s Candidate Judge Program; to the rest of us, who have lost for our shows the best water quality person in the whole world.) Fred thanked all the volunteers and helpers who worked on the Young Fish Show and the membership gave all of the hard-working people a big round of applause. Fred reported that proceeds from the raffle, profit on the food, vendor fee, and new member dues generated a bank deposit which more than covered the costs associated with putting on the show. Also announced at the meeting was the Young Fish Show Novice Award Winners. They were: 1st Place - Mark Hodgkinson; 2nd Place - Terry Carter; 3rd Place - Tim Reed.
The Pond Tour on June 2nd and 3rd was discussed. So far, there are 12 ponds to be shown, with 13 stops listed in the booklet. (Reeds and Rocks will also be in the booklet, in addition to the home ponds.) The starting points will be Jan Brown in Orange Park and Fred and Teresa Leib in Mandarin. Volunteers to man the starting points were requested and gotten for both the Saturday and Sunday times of the Tour. Club members were asked to take flyers and post them where potentially interested people could learn of the event, since the Pond Tour is the biggest money-making project the Club puts on each year. The tickets are $5.00 in advance and $6.00 at the door. Club members who want to go on the Tour can do so free of charge. Kate Deaton suggested that people who show their ponds might want to post photos of the pond under construction, to show the visitors how it is done. Kate also mentioned a new nursery which has opened in Mandarin, called Roots.
Flowering plants - petunias, Dianthus, verbena and Dahlberg daisy - were given out to the mothers in the Club, in honor of Mothers’ Day.
Todo, who obviously has a great deal of knowledge on the subject, gave an impressive, extremely informative presentation on long fin or “butterfly” koi, two terms which are often used interchangeably. The history of the long finned variety of koi was reviewed, along with a detailed, illustrated explanation of what it is that makes these fish unique in the koi world. The North Florida Koi Club is helping to expand acceptance of butterfly koi by adding named color varieties to the judged classes in our Annual Fall Show. Those of us with long finned koi in our ponds have always appreciated their beauty and grace of movement, with perhaps no understanding of what made them special. Now, we know.
Putting Your Koi on the Silver Screen
This is an excerpt from a presentation by Brady Brandwood at the AKCA Seminar in Costa Mesa, Ca, 1999. Brady operates Lotus Land Pictures and Lotus Land Koi Farm in Monroe, NC. He is also a feature for Koi USA. Here through Reflections: Fl. East Coast Koi and Water Garden Society.
VCRs are in over 80% of America’s homes and we all at least know someone who owns a camcorder. Videotaping your koi can add another facet to your hobby. I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction from shooting footage of my Koi throughout the year I don’t need to bowl them or stress them in any way to document the changes they are going through. I’m able to shoot close shots of questionable areas of Hi, Sumi, or injuries just to see how they are improving. A simple way to get a Koi on TV is to set your camcorder up on a small tripod aimed at your pond, press record and just let it run. Now you can enjoy your Koi and pond anytime day or night. You may also notice some things you didn’t see before, such as which wild critters are visiting your pond during the day, or how your favorite Sanke got the scratch on its head.
When I first started shooting fish I learned two things very quickly. They are hard to keep up with and they tend to go out of focus easily as they change depths. Large graceful Koi are much easier to shoot than the quick and zippy small ones.
Here are some tips on shooting better video. The first thing you must do is glue a large rattrap onto your zoom controls. This will keep your fingers off them. Zooming is an obnoxious and unnecessary toy in the hands of an amateur. Use you zoom to get from a wide shot to a close-up shot with the record button “OFF”. This will eliminate a lot of unnecessary footage and will provide you with a pleasing edit from wide to close. Also, plan your shots in advance and roll only on what you want. This helps to eliminate the unnecessary footage of your feet as you walk around to the other side of your pond. Keep your videos interesting by eliminating the rough stuff. You and your family will enjoy watching your “movies” over and over if they are more entertaining. See pg 4
Try to keep your shots smooth, and stay on a particular fish for a few seconds or more. This eliminates the “darting around never finding a shot” effect.
Concentrate on one fish or group of fish then slowly move on to another. Soon your camera moves will become smooth and professional looking. Most camcorders come with an “auto focus”. It’s best to switch to “manual focus” because ripples in the water, leaves and fish swimming at lower depths will all cause the auto focus to switch from object to object never finding an acceptable focus if your camcorder has a “manual iris” use this also. The black or dark bottom of your pond causes an “auto iris” to open up and overexpose your fish Simply point your camera to a wide shot of your yard, switch the auto iris to manual and you will be exposing for the fish correctly when you point your camera back to the pond.
Don’t be afraid to get close-up on your fish. Close-ups are generally more interesting. You’ll see your Koi’s eyes shift, look at you and wink as they swim by or stop to beg for a treat. You’ll glow with pride when you see your Sensuke Kohaku’s straight, sharp, beautiful Kiwa up close. Most camcorders have “auto” white and black balance functions. If yours has an optional manual white balance, hold a white piece of paper in front of the lens near your pond and get a white balance. This will help ensure the colors are accurate.
Glare is always a problem when shooting ponds. Sunny days with clear blue skies will offer the best results. Cloudy or overcast skies cause heavy glare. A polarizing filter will help fight glare but only if you are locked down on a tripod. When you try to move the camera the polarizing effect will change also. Shaded ponds tend to photograph well if you shoot in only the shaded areas. Many times you can eliminate glare by shooting straight down onto the fish, or by testing different angles until the glare is lessened. Very contrasty areas (shots that include very light and very dark areas in the same shot), will wreak havoc on most all consumer camcorders. Try to stick to more flat evenly lit scenes for better picture quality.
For Koi keepers who are considering buying a camcorder, buy the best you can afford. A little extra money can go a long way when buying a camcorder that produces quality images, as you will most likely be watching your videos for many years to come. The new “Digital” camcorders produce near “Broadcast Quality” images and “CD” quality sound, though sound is not a critical consideration when shooting your fish. The most important things to look for when purchasing a camcorder are the quality of the lens, the ability to go “manual” on most functions, and the number of lines of horizontal resolution the camera is capable of reproducing. The lens should have quality optics, have at least an 8 to 1 zooming capability, and preferably be able to go into “macro focus” for extremely close shots. As we mentioned earlier, the ability to use manual iris, manual focus, or manual white balance will result in better looking images, and more professional looking home videos.
Any consumer camcorder that is capable of reproducing 400 or more lines of horizontal resolution will give a very pleasing image. The picture will show more detail, be less grainy, and will be more enjoyable to watch, as a reference, a 35mm motion picture image offers over 1400 lines of horizontal resolution. When you are shopping for a camcorder put a few cameras side by side and decide which picture looks the best to you. Generally, if a camera produces a nice looking image in low light situations it’s a quality camera. Again, the better cameras will cost a little more.
Remember to take your camcorder to the shows to get footage of your koi’s competition. Many people say that Koi shows are mainly for exhibiting Koi and sharing them with the public, but people are competitive by nature. Get footage of the Koi that knocked your fish down a notch, take it home and study the areas you need to improve upon. Next year you’ll be back to some caudal fin!
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