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Brilliant!
I don’t get it. A two putt from that distance is not lucky.
Anyhoo, that mocking bird reminds me of “dinosaurs”–not the slow moving dull witted lizards of lore, but active, intelligent, quick agile preditors a la the most recent Triassic Park Films. Imagine even an 8 inch tall Mocking Bird with teeth!
Wonder why there aren’t bird species with a good set of teeth? Where is the diversity into every niche? Darwin obviously was a fraud.
It’s Mockingbird, not Mocking Bird, otherwise the message is distorted.
I’m with Bobbo. if it’s faked it’s not at all funny. Even if it’s real, it’s not very interesting. I saw my cat chase a bird today, but it certainly wasn’t interesting enough to document for all the world to see.
5. You are wong. Mock me naught. ((Actually, thanks.))
Thanks Angel.
And Jerk-Face, I thought that was a pretty interesting chance shot. Cats chase squirrels all the time. You don’t see a mockingbird chasing one very often… especially that close to the camera.
But as I’ve said before, “You can’t please everybody.”
And on a slightly relevant note about birds attacking squirrels… When I was a youngster, my family rescued a squirrel in our backyard as several crows were attacking it. The squirrel had no use of its hind legs and we kept it as a “pet” for about three years until it finally died. Really was kind of a cute critter and seemed to bond with us as well, including our dog.
6–Oh, camera shot, not golf shot.
Yes, I agree. Its the obvious that escapes us at times.
7—Every spring around here we have baby squirrels and baby jays falling out of trees all over the place. We take care of our share. Always surprised at how much lice they carry. Its against the law here in California to keep a wild animal, supposed to turn them over to animal services. –won’t leave you alone for a second.
“I thought that was a pretty interesting chance shot.”
So it was real?! I was actually hoping it was faked, at least it would have been technologically interesting. I’ve got to start carrying my camera with me, maybe I can get a shot of a bird shitting on a dog or something.
Watch it. You’re starting to live up to your name.
Can’t the mind slow time down also? Have you ever been in an accident where right before the big bang you can see everything happening in slow motion until the moment of impact when all of a sudden everything rushes up again and time is back to normal? It’s a kind of “life flashing before my eyes” experience. Einstein showed that time is not absolute, it is relative. I’ve also heard of athletes who can slow down time while they’re playing tennis for instance so that they can actually hit the speeding ball.
Wow…did that bird just grab that squirrel’s balls?
C’mon guys, can’t you tell it’s fake? No video camera can grab that sort of detail at that speed, with that depth of field…. Really… It’s all Adobe Premiere or something like it…
bobbo, birds are dinosaurs. Bird species still outnumber mammal species by a factor of 2. What a successful group!
As for this video, quite cool. I assume that the reason the videographer even noticed that they were in the frames was because they probably saw this happen on a much wider scale than the camera caught.
Obviously, this golfer either needs to give up a very silly game or spend a lot more time working on his
putzputts.#14 – Miguel,
I’m not an expert on video, by any stretch of the imagination. However, I can say that the characteristics of some of the little digital cameras are such that they could get images like that. The sensors are so small that even a relatively wide aperture setting becomes a lot like a pinhole camera and gets tons of depth of field. If the low end video cameras are anything like the low end digital still cameras, this seems possible to me. That doesn’t mean it’s not fake. I’m just saying I can’t be so sure.
Ah…I think it’s fake…
There should be some motion blurring of the detail…
#16: If this isn’t a fake, that guy has the slowest reflexes in the world.
That aside, there are a couple of other reasons why something about this video is fishy.
Depth of field: Yes, digital cameras can have a very large depth of field. However, a camera focused moderately far away (on the golfer) would not be able to focus sharply on the fight in the foreground, especially at the speed the fight progressed across the screen.
Shutter Speed: Standard video (read, consumer) is generally shot at 30 frames per second, max. I’m sure one could estimate the distance the “fight” traveled, the time it took, and figure out an approximate velocity. You could also discover what shutter speed you would need to “freeze” the action so nicely. I’ll wager it’s much higher than 1/30th second. I would guess 1/250th minimum, if not 1/500th.
Perspective: If you can estimate the total “width” of the area the fight occurred, you could use that information to determine if the animals were appropriately sized.
I should add, if there was as much movement as indicated by the “frame by frame” analysis, there would definitely be motion blurring.
The focus does not tell anything as the cup is in focus and it is closer than the action. However the shadows on the grass are inconsistent and point to it being fake.
After a quick review, it is either real or a pretty good fake.
1)there are consistent shadows from the putter, bird, and squirrel,
2)There is motion blurring on both the bird and squirrel,
3)the aperture / shutter speed relationship found with film cameras is not directly comparable to digital, especially video. There is a correlation true, but there is a much bigger latitude. Digital video cameras have a huge depth of field especially when compared with film video,
4)Just because the camera records at 30 frames / second doesn’t mean the shutter speed is 1/30 sec. It is much faster then that and probably in the area of 1/500.
5)I am surprised the golfer didn’t see the motion, even peripherally,
6) that is a terrible shot for that distance.
Notice that the golfer does look to the left as he approaches the camera. Sort of a, “What the hell was that?” look.