Photo-A-Day #2345

I finally got to get on the water this morning. I got up and out of the house a little after 7am. I made my way over to Falls Pond. My boat was already on my roof rack as it had been all week long. I’ve been wanting to go kayaking all week long and Tuesday was the day I was going to do it but it poured that day, so no kayaking for me. then Wednesday came and more rain, Thursday more rain as well. I was beginning to feel like Noah. Well, maybe not that bad but I did get a case of the cabin fevers.

Getting out on the water was nice. I got to use my new Kodak PlaySport digital Waterproof video camera. It has the Kodak share button on it so once I recorded a video I could set it to automatically upload to Facebook and Flickr. I did that with the video below.

I like the camera a lot. It is sleek, great design and shoots some really nice video. It was really windy on the water and the mic picked that up quite a bit. I wonder if there is some way that I can prevent that in the future. I’ll have to look into that. I’m happy that Kodak gave me the camera because the last two PlaySports that they gave me got donated to the Children’t School of Science for some of their underwater exploration. That’s cool, I’m glad that they could use the cameras.

A quiet day today because it was a work night so I slept in the afternoon after Dad came over and installed a light fixture in the dining room. this was a chandelier that Allison had from her parent’s old house in NH. It hung above their dining room table and it will hang above ours for years to come.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

On the Water with the Kodak PlaySport

I finally was able to get the video from last weekend’s Roger Williams Paddle. This video is 27 minutes long (I paired down over 3 hours of footage and stills). It is worth it, I think. We had a great time on the paddle and I really like how my Kodak PlaySport cameras and my XShot Kayak mounts worked for me.

I hope that you enjoyed the video.

Disclosure: I received the PlaySport cameras from Kodak and the XShot Kayak mounts from XShot. Both products are awesome and must haves for kayakers who want to record their trips.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Wired Kayaker Podcast #7

Photo-A-Day #1926

Today was the 3rd annual Roger Williams Paddle. I really enjoy going on this trip each year. My friend Keith Gonsalves is the head of the Ten Mile River Watershed Council. Each year he coordinates this fantastic paddle.

This year I secured sponsorship from Kodak as well as Xshot so that I could record the event. I was given two Xshot Kayak Mounts so that I could secure the two Playsport cameras that I received from Kodak. I worked with some really great people in Jennifer Cisney (@KodakCB) and Tina Clark (@KodakEvents) from Kodak and my friend Michael Daoud (@Xshot) from Xshot. Without them this would not have been such a successful trip. I love how easy it was to take video with the PlaySport. I had two cameras going at once with one pointed to the side and one straight ahead. I am looking forward to editing this video, I think there will be some interesting stuff going on with the two cameras. Here is my new rig for photos and video.

Photo Information Date Taken: July 17, 2010 Camera: Nikon Corporation (Aff Link) Model: NIKON D80 (My Flickr) ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/320sec Aperture: 6.3 Focal Length: 135mm Flash Used: No Mode: Aperture w/AF Lens: Sigma 18-250mm W Polarizing Filter

The paddle today was a fast one because today was also WaterFire day in Providence. What this meant to us was that we needed to get into the city through the hurricane gates before those gates came down and shut in the high tide. This is done so that the gondolas and fuel boats can go up and down the river. If this was not done then by the time WaterFire happened the boats would get stuck in the river.

So we were under the gun and had to haul it. The paddle wasn’t as leisurely as it has been in past years but we did get Keith’s Signature story of Roger Williams. I got most of it on video as I floated around. Thank goodness for the two PlaySports and Xshot Kayak Mounts. Without those I would have to keep swiveling around, but with them I could just gently paddle from site to side.

Once we got through the hurricane gates we could take our time. We had so much extra time that this time I could go right into Waterplace park and even paddle under the Providence Place Mall. That was really very cool. Then we got out and went over to the Roger Williams National Memorial Park. There we had a great meal and were treated to the story of Roger Williams by John McNiff. I captured his story of Roger Williams at the 1st Roger Williams Paddle.

I took a bunch of photos and posted them to a Flickr Set. You can see them at the Roger Williams Paddle 2010 set. I’ll get to working on that video soon.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Roger Williams Paddle 2010

Back in April I went to the 4th Annual Scoop the Herring event at Omega Pond in East Providence. The Event is organized each year by the Ten Mile River Watershed Council. While I was there I filmed a bunch of things and I took a bunch of photos. It took me forever to do it but I did manage to pull together a six minute video about the day. You can read about the day on this post: Scoop the Herring Day.

I finished this video and posted it because tomorrow I am headed over to Omega Pond again for the 3rd Annual Roger Williams Paddle. I’ve attended each one so far and filmed each one as well. I didn’t get last year’s video made though. I’m still so behind. I will eventually make the video.

Tomorrow I’ll be using two Kodak PlaySport HD Digital Video cameras. I will also be using two Xshot Kayak Mounts and two Shots in order to film the event. I look forward to see how these devices all work together. I will try and get that video for it up much quicker.

Disclosure: I was given the Two PlaySport Cameras from Kodak and the Two Xshot Kayak Mounts and Xshots from Xshot.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Wired Kayaker Video – Scooping Herring

Photo-A-Day #1893

I am so excited to announce that today I received two Kodak PlaySport Waterproof HD Digital Video Cameras. These were provided to me for use at the Roger Williams Paddle that will be taking place July 17th in Providence, RI. I’ll be using those cameras along with my XShot Kayak mounts too.

I am very very excited about using these cameras. Not only do they do 720p video but they also take 5MP stills as well. That is great when I am kayaking and instead of taking out a second camera to take stills I can capture them with the digital video camera. This will be so much fun. So far I’ve only taken them out of the box, read the instruction books, set the date and started charging them. So yeah I guess I have done a bit already. I will be practicing with them so that I am ready to use them to record an interview with Jennifer Cisney from Kodak (@KodakCB). She is going to be at Evo’10 Conference. We’ll be talking about the PlaySport and the upcoming Kayak trip.

Photo Information Date Taken: June 14, 2010 Camera: Canon Point and Shoot (Aff Link) Model: Canon PowerShot SD800 IS (My Flickr) ISO: n/a Exposure: 1/4sec Aperture: 2.8 Focal Length: 4.6mm Flash Used: No Mode: Manual Lens: Manual

I’ll be talking about these cameras often so know that I received them free of charge and all opinions expressed are mine alone including my impressions while using them. I’ll also be making videos with these cameras and so look for this graphic at the end of each video. Also take a look at KODAK online and connect with the great people in KODAK Social Media (Kodak on Facebook, @Kodak Events and @KodakCB).

So, thank you Kodak and especially Jennifer and Tina who are working with me.

There are two more days left to enter my Jawbone contest. I am running a Father’s Day Gadget contest. Win a Jawbone ICON Hero for Dad this Father’s Day

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Thank you Kodak!