Sunday, February 3, 2013

Shoot...Ask Questions Later: My Intro To Timelapse

Put this Bad Larry on HD!

I made this time lapse about a month ago and wasn't going to post it because it was my first attempt and kinda messy, but I reckon its kind of important to eventually compare future timelapses, photographs, and stories with the ones from when you are still "green."Yay for long sentences.

So in early January I was adjusting my shift schedule and woke up, unaided, at 0400 and was UP. Despite my best intentions to fall back asleep, apparently the top of my ceiling was so captivating that my brain refused to allow my eyes to stop starring at it. I eventually caved in and packed up my camera gear and made my way down towards Old Town, Alexandria by 0500. 

At the time I had maaaaybe used my Nikon camera once before, so I was a freshman of the photography circles.  A stubborn and uncompromising follower of the "run, shoot, jump and ask questions later" motto, I set up my tripod and camera and adjusted the settings (to take a shot every 12 seconds) with no real clue or strategy. At the time, the camera settings were kind of like reading a foreign language. Even though the timelapse wasn't anything to write home about, a lot of valuable lessons were absorbed so as to apply them to future iterations.  So anyway, I set up the gear facing east so as to capture the sun rising over over the Potomac. As you can tell, I also wanted to get some notable Alexandria waterfront landmarks in the shot too.

My goal was to get a proper sunrise timelapse but the rain and fog had other plans. Three hours later and before conditions got too bad I was able to capture this partial sunrise. Yes, its a little shaky, and perhaps the camera settings weren't calibrated just right for the shot but hey, it was my first time using the camera...period. However, later on that day, as the fog dissipated, being able to get those HDR photos more than made up for the timelapse (http://theamericanwalkabout.blogspot.com/2013/01/thrice-exposed.html). 

Man I'm long winded.

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