Last weekend I got a few seconds of footage snowboarding up north. I am not terribly impressed with the quality of the footage, but there are several reasons for that:

There is too much 2-dimensional action in this reel. The camera need not be moving, but should be placed in a location so as to add dimension.

The camera should not form a straight line with the subjects trajectory. When the subject is moving directly towards the camera, or directly away from it (as in this tape) there is no sense of depth or magnitude. Excuse the crude MSPaint drawing, but what I think should happen more often than not, is to position the Camera at point X, maximizing the angle AXC and also BXD where A is the starting point of the shot, C is the landing, B is the apex of the subject’s trajectory, and D is the effective “base” of the jump.

Moreover, we didn’t film nearly enough — just like taking pictures, 90% of what develops is crap. Film everything. Usually, stationary cameras 100 yards away don’t render the best visuals, especially in the snow where everything washes out and definition becomes a problem. Also, it helps to have a cameraman who is capable of following the subject down the hill. These are not disparaging remarks towards the camera man, it was only his fourth time on a snowboard, ever, although he does land a painfully slow-looking boardslide towards the end of the video. Just saying, a more able camera man will yield more and better footage.

So, at least we learned something. Enough jabbering, here’s the video:

They have more snow in Baghdad than I do in Michigan:

Talib Haider, a 19-year-old college student, said “a friend of mine called me at 8 a.m. to wake me up and tell me that the sky is raining snow.”

“I rushed quickly to the balcony to see a very beautiful scene,” he said. “I tried to film it with my cell phone camera. This scene has really brought me joy. I called my other friends and the morning turned to be a very happy one in my life.”

Looks like I picked a good week to leave my board at the shop for a tuneup. We’ve had rain just about every day, and temperatures that peaked in the mid- to upper sixties early in the week. It’s starting to get cooler now, but still too far above freezing for the ski areas to even make fake snow.

…thinking colder thoughts as I plan this year’s trip…

Yesterday, I noted that it was not raining per the forecast, but rather snowing large fluffy flakes. With youthful exuberance, I was sure to be snowboarding this morning. A little more than an hour after I wrote that, it started raining. And not just raining, mind you — but pouring rain; the sort of December rainstorm to which by now I should be accustomed. Were it 5 or 10 degrees colder, that volume of rain would be several inches of fresh snow. Alas, Michigan is a harsh mistress.

Some people complain that my car is too dirty and that I should take better care of it. They would submit to you, evidence like this:

Yes, the back seat of my Jeep looks like that, for the better part of the three grey months we colloquially refer to as “winter” here in Michigan. I have to keep it that way, because just as a freak downpour can ruin my weekend, on any given day a freak snowstorm is probably just as likely to have me leaving work an hour or two early in order to hit the slopes for a few precious hours, before the next 5-day stretch of 50+ degree weather melts it all.

In Michigan, even the winter-sport enthusiasts can hate the season.