Tag Archives: YouTube

My Vlog

Posted on by
Comment

I brush the dust off my personal YouTube channel for use as a vlog.

I began posting videos to YouTube on my personal YouTube channel way back in 2007. Back then — as today — the videos were mostly short clips I used to share things going on in my life. I guess I used it a lot like folks use TikTok today. (And no, I don’t have a TikTok channel or any desire to get one.)

The cool thing about putting content on YouTube for so many years is that I can look back at my life and what was going on. Some of those posts are better than blog entries because they show more than they tell. (If you’re a writer, you should understand the value of that.) I find special value in the posts that highlight things in progress, like the building of my new home or the development of my cats from kittens to full grown barn cats. Just the other day I watched a video from 2015 where I noticed the tree I’d found growing in one of my planters; not long afterward, I’d replanted that tree in my yard and it’s now more than 30 feet tall. (No kidding!)

Although I put a lot of time, energy, and money into the FlyingMAir YouTube Channel, I pretty much neglect the Maria Langer YouTube channel. There are only so many hours in a day and these days I have little desire to spend my time in front of a computer. I’ll be frank: the FlyingMAir channel earns me money through ad revenue and memberships; the Maria Langer channel does not. The FlyingMAir channel has nearly 70K subscribers; the Maria Langer channel does not. In my shoes, where would you put your time?

But I’ve recently decided I want to do more vlogging — video blogging. While lots of folks seem to consider the content on the FlyingMAir channel to be “vlogs,” I don’t. To me, a vlog is more personal and less edited. It might take me hours to video, store, back up, edit, render, and upload a 30-minute flying video. I think a vlog entry should be looser and more spontaneous. It should be something I can create quickly with my phone as the camera. Something that shares what’s on my mind or what’s right in front of me at a specific moment. Something I can upload quickly, perhaps minutes after I record it. Or maybe even while it’s going on, as a livestream.


I posted this on Twitter yesterday, but I sure wish I’d slowed down and shared it live.

What kind of content would I livestream? Well, yesterday morning, I woke to find a blanket of snow covering my entire area. It was absolutely gorgeous. But what was even more amazing was the way the sunlight hit those snowcapped peaks as the sun came up. That’s the kind of thing that’s great to share live and save for future viewing.

And how about when the bighorn sheep return to the neighborhood, as they’re likely to do within the next month or so? I’d love to create a livestream where I answer questions about them while videoing them grazing in my yard. (There actually is a livestream of this on the FlyingMAir YouTube channel; the only way to livestream it was to put it on a channel where it really didn’t belong.)

And right now, because the temperature is around freezing, the wind machines in the area are running. I’d love to share a live view of them in action, answering viewer questions as I record the sound.

That’s the kind of content that interests me. The stuff that’s going on now, the stuff I can share live with others who might have questions or comments about it. Interactive video content that doesn’t rely on editing to be interesting. Something short and sweet.

The trouble is, with fewer than 1000 subscribers on my personal channel, I can’t enable the mobile device live-streaming feature. I can only livestream from a laptop or desktop — and who the hell wants to see my talking head, especially with a view that’s likely to look up my nose?

So that brings me to a request. Can those of you reading this who have Google/Gmail/YouTube accounts go to my channel and subscribe? As I type this, I’m only 85 subscribers short of being able to turn on mobile device live-streaming. You can be one of those 85 subscribers! Three easy steps:

  1. Go here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MariaLanger/
  2. Click the Subscribe button.
  3. To be notified when there’s new content, click the bell icon to run on notifications.

And even if you don’t want to subscribe, I urge you to take a moment to check out the channel and some of the videos you’ll find there. They cover a wide range of topics and I’m pretty sure that if you like this blog, you’ll find at least a few short videos that you’l also enjoy.

Oh, and if you’re a Twitter user, follow me on Twitter. I might not tweet a lot of stuff, but most of it is personal and blog-like. After all, Twitter began as a microblogging platform and that’s still how I use it.

Helicopter Flight Up the Salt River

Posted on by
Comment

A video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

Here’s a cockpit POV view looking out the front window between me and my buddy Woody as we flew from Falcon Field (FFZ) in Mesa, AZ all the way up the Salt River to Roosevelt Lake. The cockpit intercom audio did not record [insert eye roll emoji here] so I wound up narrating it in the editing process.

I want to give a HUGE shout out to the channel members and Patreon patrons who made this flight possible — I had to rent this helicopter to do the flight and make the video.

You can see Woody in a tour of a King Air airplane in this video: https://youtu.be/1cylLFqhnzg

Helicopter Power Line Work

Posted on by
2

A video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

The title and narration pretty much says it all. We were driving across the desert and spotted some helicopter activity near some power lines. We found a road that took us right to the action. (BTW, This is the kind of thing you can see when you shut off the TV/video game/Internet and get out a little.)

I found this work fascinating and I think that if I were alone I would have captured hours of footage. But I think this taste from two angles is more than enough.

Anyone know what those line guys make? I sure hope it’s a lot!

I do know the name of the company performing this work, but have decided not to release it. Why? Well although I’m sure they were following all safety precautions and their pilots were properly trained for the work — you don’t get a job like this by being a fly-by-night operator — there’s always ONE viewer who finds something to complain about and I’m not going to help them cause trouble for these folks. Can’t you just sit back, watch, and be amazed at the things we can do?

Comments? Leave them below. I hope you enjoyed this; I’ll try to release other new content soon.

Snowbirding 2021: Drone Footage of Our Backwaters Camp

Posted on by
4

A look at our camp from the air.

I took out my Mavic Pro a few days ago and shot some footage of our winter camp.

I actually shot this on two different days. The first day, I took it up to get a few shots of my friend Janet, who was fishing from her boat down the backwater channel we’re camped on. I then shot a video overflight ending at our camp.

Watch My Helicopter Videos on YouTube

Time once again for a shameless plug…

Flying M Air Logo

If you like helicopters, you’ll love the FlyingMAir YouTube Channel. Check it out for everything from time-lapse annual inspections to cockpit POV autorotation practice to a flight home from a taco dinner at a friend’s house — and more.

I shot the second half the next day. I wanted to circle the camp from the air, but I wanted it set up as we usually have it. The first day, my truck was parked inside the living area because we’d offload groceries and water jugs. In the second half of the video, my truck is parked where it belongs, on the other side of the boat ramp.

The light was definitely better the first day I shot. I should have just moved the damn truck and kept shooting. My bad.

Anyway, here’s the video; I posted it on the FlyingMAir YouTube channel. Read the video description to learn more about my music choice.

Drone Footage from Winter Camp

Posted on by
Comment

A video from the Flying M Air YouTube channel.

An aerial view of where I’m camped right now: off the grid in southwest Arizona and relying on solar panels for Power, a 2 year old MacBook Pro for video editing, and my Verizon “4G” (LOL) connection for Internet access.

I’m camped here for a while with my friend Janet and our dogs. Camp includes our art workspaces: she paints and I make jewelry. I’m living in the truck camper with the awning out and she’s living in the shorter travel trailer. We have inflatable boats in the water. I described life in camp in this blog post, if you’re interested: https://aneclecticmind.com/2020/12/19/snowbirding-2021-life-at-the-backwaters-camp/

The footage was shot with an original DJI Mavic Pro. This drone works great for me and I haven’t needed an upgrade. (Thank heaven; these damn things cost a fortune.) I piloted the first half and used the POI feature for the second half, which I also sped up by 150%.

The music is from YouTube’s free music for Creators, “Auld Lang Syne (Instrumental)” by Jingle Punks. I liked this piece because it’s traditional holiday fare for the end of the year. This version seems (to me) as if it hits a few bad notes along the way, which is perfect for the end of a really crappy year for so many of us.

I’m uploading this as I type on a connection that’s less than 1 Mbps and it’s taking forever. This also explains why I haven’t uploaded anything better for a while. My current computer setup is a MacBook Pro that can’t run DaVinci Resolve (my preferred video editing app) so I’m stuck with Screenflow, which has limited capabilities. I am able to create 1080 video, however, so that’s what I made. 50 MB for just over 2 minutes of video takes a very long time to upload at these dismal access speeds. (Total was about 30 minutes, actually, which wasn’t CRAZY bad. I just kept wondering if I’d lose the connection in the middle somewhere. I didn’t.)

I hope everyone has a great holiday. Wear a mask, stay healthy, get vaccinated as soon as you can. Be nice to others. Don’t hate. 2021 is going to be a GREAT year — if we make it that way!