You are here: Home / Archives for Clip of the Week

Clip of the Week

Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park

Another of my favorite spots in Yellowstone is Grand Prismatic Spring. Grand Prismatic is the largest hot spring in Yellowstone. Only in New Zealand will you find two springs that are larger. The Hayden Expedition in 1871 named this spring because of its beautiful coloration. Early sketches of the springs seem so exaggerated that geologist A.C. Peale returned in 1878 to verify the colors.

The vivid colors in the spring are the result of pigmented bacteria in the microbial mats that grow around the edges of the mineral-rich water. The bacteria produce colors ranging from green to red; the amount of color in the microbial mats depends on the ratio of chlorophyll to carotenoids. In the summer, the mats tend to be orange and red, whereas in the winter the mats are usually dark green. The center of the pool is sterile due to extreme heat.

The deep blue color of the water in the center of the pool results from a light-absorbing overtone of the hydroxy stretch of water. Though this effect is responsible for making all large bodies of water blue, it is particularly intense in Grand Prismatic Spring because of the high purity and depth of the water in the middle of the spring.

The spring is approximately 250 by 300 feet (75 by 91 m) in size and is 160 feet (49 meters) deep. The spring discharges an estimated 560 gallons (2000 litres) of 160°F (71°C) water per minute.

You can view this clip here.

Clip of the Week

Sunset Waikiki Beach, Hawaii

Waikiki Beach Hawaii

Waikiki Beach Hawaii

As the snow flurries flew outside my window this morning and the mercury dipped into the 20’s, my mind drifts back to a beautiful sunset I witnessed on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii.

Hawaii is truly a fantastic place to take in the beauty of nature. I look forward to stepping on the warm sand of Waikiki Beach in the near future.

I had gone to Hawaii last year to help people learn about the Panasonic HVX-200 HD camcorder.
It was a fantastic opportunity to spend ten days in this tropical paradise and really experience the beauty of the island.

No matter where I was on the island, I always seemed to gravitate back to Waikiki Beach for the sunset.

My hotel was right on the beach and as the sun went down, the nightlife went up. It was a magical place.

My time there also coincided with the Hawaii International Film Festival.

As part of the festival last year they showed films right on Waikiki Beach. Called Sunset on the Beach, they’d show international films on a 30 foot screen every evening after sunset. So, not only did you get to watch a great sunset, you got to watch a great film every night as well.

In fact, if you check out this film of mine, you can see a couple shots that show the giant screen set up right on the beach.

You can view the clip here.

Clip of the Week

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.

Click HERE to view the clip.

Clip of the Week

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.

Click HERE to view the clip.

Clip of the Week

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.

Click HERE to view the clip.

Clip of the Week

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.

Click here to view the clip.

Clip of the Week

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.

white_dome_geyser