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.