Yakima Burns! — Old Boise Cascade fire video thoughts…
So the power went out today at yakimaherald.com when the old Boise Cascade mill went up in smoke. Whenever you drive through Yakima on Interstate 82, you notice what looks to be a large lumber mill, when actually it’s over-glorified lumber storage that has been warned about the danger of keeping so many logs without watering them.
The old Boise Cascade mill in Yakima burns on Sept. 26, 2009. Image taken from video.
When on scene of this developing fire, I shot a very short video clip with my iPhone and sent it to youtube while shooting with the Canon XH-A1. I knew that I would not be able to cut through, encode and upload raw video as quick as I could send a clip through youtube so I tried it out. (both examples below) There’s a huge difference in quality, but also a huge difference in output time.
Do I think the youtube version got the message across when time was a factor? Yes. It clearly says ‘big darn fire’ or ‘Yakima burns’ to the public looking for information about what’s going on. Should it be replaced with something better? Absolutely. Once I had the raw video from the pro camera online, I notified the people who were using the youtube video and asked them to take it down.
So here they are.
YOUTUBE: iPhone with youtube upload from fire scene
YAKIMAHERALD.COM (Blip) with Canon XH-A1, cut, encoded from home on MacBook
My judgment? I would do it again this way, however with a few differences. I will use the yakimaherald youtube account next time. (gotta get that programmed into my phone as an option) I will try to put more info into the cutline if possible with teaser info for the link for more into. I could have but was more interested if it worked at all at the time. Adding a disclaimer in the text teasing the ‘full’ or produced video at a later time so check back… sort of thing might have helped as well. I may have more thoughts on this later. Ta, ta.