Videos

Above are three western redcedars (Thuja plicata) growing adjacent to a seasonal stream in Oregon's West Cascades.

I acquired in summer 2010 my first digital camera—a Canon Powershot—and, although I was aware that it had the ability to make videos, I didn't take advantage of that feature until about a year later.

My first couple of videos were just brief tests, but I was impressed with the product—both the image quality as well as the sound.  Then one day, while I was waiting for my breakfast pancake to finish cooking, during a solo camping trip to Oregon's coast, I decided just for fun to record the experience.  When I played back the short video, I had to laugh!  It was pretty funny—and educational, too!

Over the next few months, I made a half-dozen more videos—all of them outdoors and on the subject of "nature"—but I just stored them on the camera's memory card, as I didn't have an immediate use for them.

That changed during fall term 2011, when I taught for the second time my University of Oregon course called The Nature of Eugene.  One day, as a break from my usual blackboard lecture, I showed the class several of my videos that related to topics we had discussed in class, and the response was very favorable.  Later, two of the students in the class came up to me and said, "You should put those up on YouTube!"

As someone who is not particularly attuned to modern media, I was at first reluctant.  Why would YouTube users want to see my silly little videos?  But the two students insisted, and a few days later, the three of us sat down together after class and uploaded some of the videos.  Since then, I've done the uploading myself, and I add a new video whenever I make one that I think viewers might find interesting or enjoyable.

No, none of the videos has "gone viral" yet—although the one called Trees Across Oregon:  The Western Hemlock Zone has over 15,000 hits so far (gasp!)—but many people find them interesting, amusing, beautiful, and/or even educational.  And that's just great!

(Update:  Since 2020 I'm using an iPhone11 instead of the digital camera to record my videos.)

So here is the link to my YouTube channel and the list of uploaded videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUxR1iKiBk_nbyMyrOLlr8nw

Have fun! 

(This page updated 07 December 2023)