Wednesday, October 11, 2006

YouTube's an Old Tube


I recently acquired an interesting book about film making in the Canadian arctic called Northern Exposures. It appears that taking YouTube style videos from my foredeck isn't that new an idea. As a kayaker who has been learning how to take decent videos from the vantage point of my kayak's foredeck, I was astounded to see this was done many years ago. The front cover of the books shows an unknown Hudson Bay Company cinematographer filming in 1919 with a hand-cranked camera. I can only imagine the problems he must have faced trying to paddle and film at the same time! At least he had a massive Canadian 'qajaq' to use as a film platform and not a quirky little Greenland boat.
I'm presently reading a couple of books about the 'Milky Way', the pilgrims' route from St Jean-Pied-de-Port to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela across the northern part of Spain. I want to walk this route in the next year or so after I've satisfied my paddling needs for a while and feel I can back off for a month or two. Once these books are finished, I'll dive into 'Northern Exposures' and learn how the old boys did it. Should be interesting reading.

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