Sounds of Camp Old Indian

This is not a "movie" but through a loophole in blogger I was able to put together these sounds clips from Camp Old Indian recorded on 7-02-2008. They were recorded with a highend handheld digital audio recorder known as an Edirol R-09HR. Put on your headphones. close your eyes and 'be transported!"

Thank goodness for Photoshop and Camera Raw

When I was visiting camp last week I also took my Canon Digital Rebel SLR. I forgot the adjust some setting from a previous job during the first few photos I took. Below are a couple of photos and adjustments I made to them. Thankfully my camera was set to take photos in the RAW format and therefore I had a little more freedom in making some adjustments that either saved the photos or really made them pop!

A photo showing a Scout walking the road towards to lake. He was probably headed to the Nature Lodge or one of the Lakes for a class. As you can see the original photo was really underexposed by but thankfully I was about to rescue it Adobe Photoshop's Camera Raw edit area.

The next photo is of a Luna moth I saw in the central field near the totem pole. The original photo looked rather dull and washed out but in the second one I increased the blacks, made the colors "warmer" and added a bit of vignetting to draw the eye to it.

Blogging from Camp Old Indian

I don't currently have an Internet connection as I write this but I am taking a short break in the Trading Post conference room to

organize my media captures (audio clips, video tapes, photos, etc.) before lunch and the rest of the afternoon.

I arrived at Camp Old Indian around 7:50am and after grabbing my video camera, tripod and Edirol MP3 recorder I quickly headed to the central field where all the troops and staff were congregating for breakfast, flag raising and morning annoucements. Shortly after the flags were raised I meet Matt Kubler who had asked me to do the video for Camp after seeing the previous one I did for fun at the 2008 Staff reunion.

After breakfast I set up my camera on the tripod, filmed a little bit in the center of the camp and then walked towards the shooting sports section. I filmed and recorded audio at the rifle range (wait till you hear the audio file on that one!) then the archery range and then I started going to other parts of the camp like the scoutcraft area, auqatics and then I walked to the chapel area where I rested for a bit to deal with a bad headache I have been having this morning.

more time in field recording sounds, classes and walked around the perimiter road near shooting sports and looping around the Museum A's, Big Rock A's and back down to the Meadow for lunch.

During Lunch I got some good footage of "Mail Call" and after lunch spend a good bit of time at the swimming lake filming a class in water safety. and later filmed a little bit in the nature lodge then back to First Aid, etc.

At several times during the day I took breaks at the camp entrance seen in the photo at the beginning of this post. For some reason the picnic tables at the camp entrance was the only spot I could get a cell phone signal to check in with the "office."

I ended the day with attending the OA Dance Ceremony where I was able to film a little bit before the battery in my video camera went dead and then I headed home. On the way home I practiced podcasting by talking the whole way about the day into my Edirol digital recorder. Enjoyed meeting everyone there, the 2008 Staff and Campers in attendance this past week.

The sounds of Camp Old Indian

While I am set to record quite a bit of video next week at Camp Old Indian I will also be recording the sounds of Camp at the same time. Part of the purpose of writing this blog is to set up a check list of sounds I would love to capture;

• The wildlife like the various kinds of frogs you can hear during the day and more specifically the early evening



• Merit Badge calls



• Rifle and shotgun shooting



• Announcements following the meals



• Troop reports as the flag pole



• Reveille (Hmm.... I may be showing up earlier than expected)



• Scoutmasters, Campers and Staff chatting around the trading post



• Swimming



• The sounds of the dance and drums



• Dining Hall chatter



• I would love to capture the sound of rain hitting a tin roof but the odds are against me



• The sound of landscape machinery like the camp tractor



• The sound of shovels



• The sound of hammers, etc. in the handicraft shop



• Taps (I may stay later than expected unless I can convince a bugler to play special #'s)



• The brush of feet against the main road gravel in front of the Trading Post



• An example of a class being taught

I'll probably use my Edirol R-09HR high end wav/mp3 recorder to capture these sounds as if they were being heard at camp and less pure if you get my drift. Any other ideas on camp sounds you would like recorded for possible inclusion into a video and/or archived separately?

Looking forward to a July 2, 2008 visit

I'm looking forward to next week, next Wed. to be exact. I will be spending all day, between 7:30am till maybe around 9pm at Camp Old Indian recording video, taking still photos and capturing audio for a short promotional video project I will be doing for the Camp this year as a service of my company. You may have seen my last video from the reunion.(I recommend clicking on the "watch in high quality" link when you visit that YouTube page. That video was mostly for play and this new project will be a lot more professional.

One reason this has me very excited is I get to combine two things I love. Multimedia production and Camp Old Indian and ironically they are on opposite ends of the technology scale. Multimedia of course being on the high end and Camp Old Indian being on the low end (at least in regards to what one see on the surface and not counting the technology of any of the infrastructure.

However Camp Old Indian and photography have always had strong ties to each other. If you visit the Trading Post at Camp Old Indian you will see photos that probably date back as far as the 40's and 50's and during the recent reunion one of the things put on display was photo albums of the Alumni in attendance. You can view both historical and current photos at the Camp Old Indian group on Flickr.

Hopefully I will see some of you next Wed. I may be hard to miss as I will be connected to some piece of technology like a video or still camera, tripod, my MacBook Pro, Edirol Digital MP3 recorder, etc. If anyone wants has any free time and wants to be my "roadie" I wouldn't complain! Seriously looking forward to a great time recording the uniqueness of Camp Old Indian and more memories.

BTW, would anyone be interested in a Camp Old Indian podcast?

Waterfall Revealed

In all of my years working at Camp Old Indian and previous years camping I never saw the waterfall in the photo you see hear. I had heard people talk about one and I think I even heard it but their was never a clear trail that led the way to it. Since I last worked at Camp Old Indian in 1989 and new trail has been created that goes around the side and to the back of the "third lake" which for all practical purposes is a swamp. The waterfall is part of a stream that feeds into the third lake and I'm glad my friend Ronny and I decided to take the short hike as seeing it was worth the walk and even going to the reunion. If you are familiar with Camp Old Indian is their something that has recently surprised you that has always been there but you were not aware of?

2008 Camp Old Indian Staff Reunion Video

Here is a video of the reunion I "slapped together." I may do a "special edition" later but for now enjoy the memories!

Oh, the credits are meant to be slightly humorous and not entirely literally so please don't get offended if your name is not there. Hope you don't mind the slightly cheesy music clips and sound effects.