Wapsipinicon Mill
The six story brick mill on stone foundation measuring 62′X 102′ replaced an earlier 1851 mill after its 1867-1870 period of construction Samuel Sherwood built this best flour mill west of the Mississippi River. The main structure is of heavy timber frame, mortise and tenon joints with square nails and wooden pegs of oak for strength. Wooden shingles covered the roof, 107′ above mill base. The complete price tag of the mill and it’s water rights came to $100,000, a tidy sum for the 1870’s.
The mill is situated on the west bank of the Wapsipinicon River at the dam. The mill produced it own electricity from 1915 on; power for the Gedney Hotel via an under-river cable; and later, the mill lit the whole town for a while. Rollers replaced the millstones; the original water wheel was replaced by turbines, then the steam boiler & a gas engine of one cylinder power came into use; finally, electricity powered the corn sheller and attrition mill and mixer of more recent times.
The horse drawn stone puller used to pull the massive granite boulders from the Buchanan Co. prairie. These boulders were transported to the mill site, dressed and sized for the foundation material of the mill with the help of Alex Hathaway and Samuel Sherwood. The walls of stone above this level are of Farley Limestone.
The west side of the mill has deep grooves along the wall of the wagon hubs that scraped the bricks as the farmers got as close to the mill wall as possible, to ensure that no grain, corn or meal fell to the ground to be wasted. The old millstones were last used in 1942 by Jesse Zimmerly and Fred Potts, to fill an order for the Burris and Soener Cafe, in town, for a ton of buckwheat flour for pancake fixins’.
The mill was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 by the Oliver Greenleys. The following year the mill was turned over by the Greenleys to the Buchanan County Historical Society. The lower “floating floor” needed work after many floods, as did the roof, some outside walls and brick facing in many places. this was done about 1993 in part of a major $300,000 restoration effort. Resoration is on-going, as the mill is a museum of displays and exhibits depicting 1870’s grain milling in the Midwest.
October 1st marked the start of the eleventh UWOL Film Challenge. The Underwater, Over Land Film Challenge or UWOL as it’s most commonly known, is and international film challenge catering to ouotdoor, nature and wildlife filmmakers.
Six times a year, filmmakers who sign up to accept the challenge are given a theme the day the challenge begins. Once the theme has been announced, filmmakers have three weeks to complete a three minute film based on that particular theme.
Past themes have included The Living Skies, Water, The Wild, Wildlife, Recreation and Adventure.
The hallmark of UWOL is the constructive critisism filmmakers get from their peers through feedback threads hosted on DVi. Even though it is a competition, entrants and non-entrants alike give positive and constructive feedback on what worked, what didn’t and why. As a result, the filmmakers expand and improve their abilities and the whole challenge improves as a result.
The theme for UWOL 11 is “Habitat ”
Follow along as I develop the idea, shoot and edit my film.
Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah
As the trees begin to turn yellow and red here in Eastern Iowa, I’m reminded of another place where the reds and oranges are not just temporary Fall colors.
Before the turn of the century, mustang herds ran wild on the mesas near Dead Horse Point. The unique promontory provided a natural corral into which the horses were driven by cowboys. The only escape was through a narrow, 30-yard neck of land controlled by fencing. Mustangs were then roped and broken, with the better ones being kept for personal use or sold to eastern markets. Unwanted culls of “broomtails” were left behind to find their way off the Point.
According to one legend, a band of broomtails was left corralled on the Point. The gate was supposedly left open so the horses could return to the open range. For some unknown reason, the mustangs remained on the Point. There they died of thirst within sight of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.
Dead Horse Point is a fantastic place to visit. While Canoyonlands and Arches National Parks are flooded with tourists, Dead Horse Point, is a great escape from the crowds.
The morning I was there, I had the entire view of the point to myself. The Fall morning was cool and crisp and the the silence was something I had not experienced in the nearby National Parks.
Eventually as the morning wore on, a few people stopped for brief moments then continued on. Only when my desire for peace and solitude were filled, did I venture on and leave the beautiful colors of Dead Horse Point behind.
I was reading another filmmakers blog the other day about people purposely creating noise to ruin their shots.
I’ve run into the same situation myself on numerous occasions. Mostly it seems to occur when I’m shooting close to a road or in areas where larger groups of people happen to be.
Some people take great delight in honking horns, yelling, peeling out in their vehicles, whatever they can think of to be disruptive.
I’m not quite sure what the reasoning is behind it all. It seems that whenever you’re in an area that is easily accessible to the public, you have these issues.
As soon as you get fifty yards off the road and hike down a trail, people suddenly develop manners. They’ll wait for you to finish a shot. They will stop talking if it looks like you’re filming. They’ll take a different path to not scare away your subject.
I think it all boils down to these people have respect for nature and wildlife. It’s like they feel you’ve taken the effort to go beyond the being tourist driving down the road with their camcorder hanging out the window as they talk on their cell phone.
When you lose sight of the roads, the general stores, the ice cream shops, you enter a world where the horn honkers are too lazy to venture. You only come across people that truly respect nature and enjoy the solitude it can provide.
Of course, it’s a two way street. If I see people approaching, I’ll hold off on taking a shot or I’ll take the time to explain what I’m shooting and why.
Off the road, people have respect for you and your gear. I wish that were true everywhere and not just off the beaten path. I don’t know how many times I’ve been to places like Mt. Rushmore’s observation deck and had people grab my camera on the tripod and start turning it try and get a better view of the Presidents. I usually point the camera down or away from the subject to discourage this practice. One guy was even upset that I had the lens cap on and he couldn’t see anything.
Sometimes you can’t help but shoot near the road or on a boardwalk crowded with people. You just have to grin and bear it. Most days though I find myself grinning. Not because I think these people are funny but because I tend to record a lot of my footage in slow motion. When I do that, my camera doesn’t record any audio. So they can hoot and holler all they want, they’ll never ruin a shot.
But, sometimes whenever it gets to be too much, I just step off the road and enter a world where people have respect for each other and their surroundings. If only the rest of the world could be that way.
Artist Point Yellowstone National Park Part 2
A very different clip than last weeks close-up view of the Lower Falls from Artist Point.
This clip is a time-lapse of the entire canyon with the falls off in the distance.
Artist Point is one of the most spectacular scenic areas in the Canyon Area of the Park. The sheer walls drop 700 feet to the bottom of the canyon.
Upriver the powerful Lower Falls are still in view. Down river the canyon widens and deepens to maximum of 1540 feet.
The canyon walls are predominantly yellow, but colors of blue, red, orange, and brown are also present. The colors are ever changing and intensified especially when the sun shines after raining.
Lower Falls, Artist Point Yellowstone National Park
One of my all time favorite spots on Earth has to be Yellowstone National Park.
I’ve been coming to Yellowstone since the mid-eighties. While Old Faithful is certainly the most famous feature in the park, one of my favorite has to be the Lower Falls.
At 308 feet, almost twice the height of Niagra, The Lower Falls is truly breathtaking to behold.
This clip was shot early one June morning before most of the people had even had breakfast.
The sun rises early that time of year and the best light is over about the same time people are just starting to arrive in large numbers.
There was only three or four other people at Artist Point that morning. Everyone was scattered enough that it felt like I had a private audience with the falls.
It’s moments like this that you can almost imagine how it was in 1872 when painter Thomas Moran first painted this scene.
Moran’s painting was the first landscape painting by an American artist bought by the American government.
Moran’s painting along with photographs by William Henry Jackson, convinced the US government to set aside this land to become America’s first national park.
Orange traffic cones were placed to corral the photographers into a more manageable area. Cones were on the other side of the road to keep them from getting any closer than they already were to the den.
As I watched the photographers jockey for position, tripod legs intertwined, elbow to elbow, each trying to get just that one step closer to the den, it got me thinking about my own work.
For years I was cut from the same cloth as those still photographers. It was always “Have to fill the frame. Need to get in closer.” When I had a 300mm lens, I wished for that 600mm so I could fill the frame that much more. It was always about getting in as tight as I could to get that animal right in your face.
I still flip through still photography magazines to keep up with what’s going on in the still world. While there have been huge advances in camera technology, the song is still the same. How to get closer, how to fill the frame. I see it a lot in film and video too. Everyone’s trying to get just a little bit closer than the next guy.
But I discovered by doing that I was only getting part of the picture. I realized that day at the coyote den that I had been changing my shooting style without really being conscious of it. I had discovered the big picture.
I’m not even sure when it started to happen but I was starting to back up, to open up the frame, to let a little more in.
It became more important to me to get the animal in its environment than to get a frame filling shot.
An animal and its environment are so intertwined, it made no sense to me to include one and not the other.
Whenever I see imagery of a farmer, they’re always shown next to a barn or tractor. Businessmen are always shown in front of a fancy building or behind a big executive desk. Why isn’t it the same for wildlife? Why do most people chose to ignore the habitat that wildlife call home?
Is it because most people never get a chance to see wildlife up close and personal?
Whatever the reason, I continue to see people driving wildlife away by trying to get just one step closer. As for me, I’m content to step back away from the crowds in order to see the big picture.
White Dome Geyser, Yellowstone National Park
Whenever I travel to Yellowstone I can never resist stopping by White Dome geyser. It’s not a huge geyser by any means, only erupts twenty to thirty feet.
But oftentimes, I’m the only one there to watch as it puts forth its best effort.
It’s usually upstaged by its neighbor Great Fountain Geyser.
This clip was shot one cool morning around the end of May. As usual, people would stop for a few minutes and then continue on, hoping to catch a bigger geyser going off somewhere in the park.
So, I sat alone and kept White Dome company as it performed for its audience of one.
To watch White Dome in action, click on the link below.
As the long Iowa winter slowly retreated, snow melt from the record snowfalls saturated the ground. Spring rains rolled in wave after wave without an opportunity for the ground to dry.
River levels began to rise but no one was ready for what was about to happen.
Torrential rains to the North of Cedar Rapids, Iowa began making their way downstream. Coupled with the huge amounts Eastern Iowa had already experienced, the rivers finally left their banks.
Flood stage of the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids is 12 feet. When the river finally crested the level stood at 31.1 feet.
Over 25,000 people were evacuated from their homes, 438 city blocks were underwater. Bridges were completely covered and just to get to Iowa City from Cedar Rapids, normally a 30 mile drive was now almost a 300 mile one way trip to avoid the flooded roads.
They believe that it will be almost ten days before the river drops below flood stage. Early property value estimates of the damage Cedar Rapids experiences exceeded $736,000,000.00.
The response from Iowans from all walks of life has been amazing thousands of people came out to help their neighbors sandbag their houses even after their own houses were claimed by the rising flood waters.
Businesses realizing their own business was a lost cause, dismantled the walls of sandbags surrounding their exterior walls and took them to their competitors in order to try and save them if possible.
Although the river has crested in Cedar Rapids, the water is moving downstream and the city of Iowa City, home of the University of Iowa is currently under siege from the rising waters.
You can see a little bit of the devastation from some video I shot on the way to get supplies. There’s no telling how long it will be before supplies can start rolling back into Cedar Rapids on a regular basis.
The link to the video can be found here.
14
Mar
2008
Mar
2008
Bill to Reduce Shooting Fees in National Parks
March 14th, 2008 at 16:48 pm by admin in News
Currently small production companies are lumped into the same group as the major motion picture companies.
Any filming in National Parks for commercial purposes requires a permit, location fees and other fees may be applicable.
One or two filmmakers with minimal equipment such as just a camera and tripod are exempt from location fees but are still required to pay for a permit and additional fees may be applied as well.
The current law was never intended to include the small indie film crew but language was never included to exempt the independent.
Still photographers are exempt from this law as they lobbied to have language included in the current law to exempt them from these requirements.
A bill is currently in committee that will allow the small film and video companies of five or less crew members to be exempt from any fees other than a single yearly permit which would cost $200.
Currently you would need a permit for each park you wished to shoot on and would likely have to pay additional fees on top of that.
Below is a summary of the bill that is currently in committee:
H. R. 5502
To amend Public Law 106-206 to direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to require annual permits and assess annual fees for commercial filming activities on Federal land for film crews of 5 persons or fewer.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 27, 2008
Mr. BOREN (for himself and Mr. YOUNG of Alaska) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend Public Law 106-206 to direct the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to require annual permits and assess annual fees for commercial filming activities on Federal land for film crews of 5 persons or fewer.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this Act is to provide commercial film crews of 5 persons or fewer access to film in areas designated for public use during public hours on Federal lands.
SEC. 2. ANNUAL PERMIT AND FEE FOR FILM CREWS OF 5 PERSONS OR FEWER.
(a) In General- Section (1)(a) of Public Law 106-206 (16 U.S.C. 460l-6d) is amended by–
(1) redesignating paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) as subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C), respectively;
(2) striking `The Secretary of the Interior’ and inserting `(1) IN GENERAL- Except as provided by paragraph (3), the Secretary of the Interior’;
(3) inserting `(2) OTHER CONSIDERATIONS- ‘ before `The Secretary may include other factors’; and
(4) adding at the end the following new paragraph:
`(3) SPECIAL RULES FOR FILM CREWS OF 5 PERSONS OR FEWER-
`(A) For any film crew of 5 persons or fewer, the Secretary shall require a permit and assess an annual fee of $200 for commercial filming activities or similar projects on Federal lands administered by the Secretary. The permit shall be valid for commercial filming activities or similar projects that occur in areas designated for public use during public hours on all Federal lands administered by the Secretary for a 12-month period beginning on the date of issuance of the permit.
`(B) For persons holding a permit described in this paragraph, the Secretary shall not assess, during the effective period of the permit, any additional fee for commercial filming activities and similar projects that occur in areas designated for public use during public hours on Federal lands administered by the Secretary.
`(C) In this paragraph, the term `film crew’ includes all persons present on Federal land under the Secretary’s jurisdiction who are associated with the production of a certain film.’.
(b) Recovery of Costs- Section (1)(b) of Public Law 106-206 (16 U.S.C. 460l-6d) is amended by–
(1) striking `collect any costs’ and inserting `recover any costs’; and
(2) striking `similar project’ and inserting `similar projects’.
