A small "JAW"

Over the weekend, I had Chris Beck, a close friend, working together on editing the slow motion of the previous movie clip. May, Chris's wife and a co-worker of mine, was shaking her head, saying "oh, you boys..." as she looked at us cheerfully celebrating our not-so-profound success in the editing, at least by professional standards. She is right, boys will always be boys. No offense, May!

You know what? After editing the sound effect in, the clip is no longer just a frog feeding on a cricket like the previous one. It's almost like watching the great white shark chowing down a seal in "JAW", or the tyrannosaurus swallowing the lamb in "JURASSIC PARK." Even I myself feel the chill of the violence in the name of "the strongest survives."

Speaking of that, it does exist in our world in different aspects. Gun shots here, civil wars there. How about Wall Street bankers gaming on our financial system while corporations and crooks violating business ethics for their fat pockets. Or the rich keep getting richer while the poor struggle in putting food on the table.

We're almost like the crickets trying to get fed while avoiding being eaten alive. Having said that, our prospects are much brighter than the crickets because we are not confined by where we are in our own food chain. One day, we may be at the bottom, who knows on another day, we may rise up to another level if not straight up to the top. Or vice versa as we have witnessed those falling down hard in the last 12 months.



Chris, thank you for your help.

Video credit: me

A dream

Picture this: a bald eagle is descending in high speed right above a lake, then extending its claws to grab a fish right out of the water. And in seconds, it flies away without a trace. It's so breathtaking.

Or a slow motion movie clip of a lion's deadly hunt in safari, which turns out to be an incredible escape being pulled off by the prey itself, will never fail us. One way or the other, we have that "WOW" moment.

As you know, I'm no film director, but I like taking NOT low budget, but NO BUDGET movie shots of my leopard frog with my crappy point and shoot camera, dreaming one day I could be one of those National Geographic photographic journalists shooting footage of an elusive wolf pack hunting caribous in Alaska or part of the BBC natural history camera crew shooting documentary of two snow leopards going after mountain goats in Pakistan shown in the "Planet Earth" series.

I know, I know, it takes a lot skill and hard work to put a collection like that together. And I admit I wouldn't have that kind of patience and talent to pull it off, but still, it doesn't deter me from creating my own version of a "controlled" documentary of my leopard frog.

Beware, this clip is not "G" rated, but it's nowhere near X's though. Watch:




If you like this one, you surely would like the slow motion version that will be posted in a couple of days, stay tuned.