No rest for the weary

It's been a busy week since returning home. Work has been non-stop, with reviews, reports, and projects aplenty. I've only partially unpacked, and everything is strewn about my living room. I've been going to work later than normal so I can sleep a little extra, but by the time I get home I'm wiped and don't have the energy to tackle what needs to get done. The good news is that all this laying around means I can work on going through my photos and getting things posted, always a tedious task after any trip. This year, I found that I took fewer photos because I had the GoPro running through the most interesting stretches. And until the last few days, most of the scenery just wasn't all that interesting. So my job is a little easier this time.

The first thing I wanted to tackle was the time lapse of the ferry ride from Newfoundland. I tried GoPro's software and was getting an error after the conversion step. Nothing seemed out of place, as all of the files had images with them, and you could even watch the time lapse within the software, but trying to export it in any way caused a crash. After a day, I gave up on that route and figured my fancy new copy of Photoshop must be able to help.  I found a tutorial somewhere and followed along, but found I could only add 1000 photos at a time, and then I was still having issues getting it into a video. Worse, my brand new high-power laptop was maxing out and having all kinds of issues. Then I realized I was following a tutorial for an older version of PS, so I found one for PS6, and had an easier time of loading all the photos. But there was still an issue somewhere and it told me there was a gap. Some more Googling (seriously, what did we do before that?) told me I should try renaming the files. Did a batch rename and before I knew it I had a complete, functional time lapse. I even had a song picked out, and popped that in, worked out the timing, and was exporting within minutes. This was a good learning exercise and will make my life easier in the future.

There are still hours and hours of other videos to go through. I'm not sure how I want to tackle those, either as separate videos for that day, or try to make some kind of compilation video combining all the videos and some photos. I think I have a song in mind for that, as well, but the task of putting it together is daunting. One clip I did get up was that one of us nearly hitting the plow on Esker road. It's not my smoothest work, but anytime someone stuffs a car in a snow bank it's entertaining.

So far I have up to Wednesday loaded on my Smugmug site, and may even get Thursday up tonight. That's good progress for me. Hell, I think I still have a day or two from last year's trip I never got around to uploading. You can view what I have so far here: Labrador photos.

Much like last year, I came back from this trip with a desire to do something greater with my life, and more importantly, to do a better job of strengthening the relationships I have. I do think I took that to heart last year and spent more time with my friends. If that means I have to be the organizer that tracks everyone down so be it, because in the end we're always glad to have spent the time together. This year, there were several people from CT on the trip, so there really is no excuse to not get together. I look forward to seeing what this year brings. I also hope to do a better job of updating the blog with the smaller outings I take. Maybe it will inspire you to explore what's around you :)