I have been fascinated by time lapse photography for a while, but never really took the time to try my hand at capturing the images and putting them together. Recently I took my Nikon D7100 camera down to the neighborhood lake and captured a few hundred still images of a really beautiful sunset over the water (video shown below). One of the great features on most of the Nikon DLSR cameras is that they have an interval timer feature built in, allowing you to select the interval you want between each image. After you lock in the interval time and the number of photos, you put the camera on a tripod, or extremely steady surface, and get comfortable. The camera works its magic and takes an image every few seconds over a 45 minute to 90 minute time span, depending on your patience level. At 30 frames per second, it takes a while just to make a video that is 30 to 45 seconds long.
Below is a photo of my setup which was a picturesque scene overlooking the lake down the street from us with a fountain in the middle. In the videos I have watched, I always find it more appealing to have some form of subject in the time lapse, along with the sunset, to make the action a bit more interesting. Of course capturing the photos is just step one, the real magic happens in the video program where you stitch the photos together to make them into a video.
It was a beautiful night but, as many of my nights go, I didn’t plan well for the onslaught of mosquitoes that would make me target that evening. Aside from my legs looking like a bad case of chicken pox, I thought overall it was a pretty successful first attempt as the sky had lots of great color and the clouds provided for some neat motion Give it a watch and let me know what you think in the comment section below.
Fast forward to after my birthday where my loving wife got me the gift that keeps on giving… the GoPro HERO4 Silver
. This camera has proven to be a lot of fun whether it be a day out at Disney, on vacation, or just in the backyard swimming, this camera can do it all. Well not only does the GoPro capture some stunning video, it also have an awesome built in time lapse feature. The camera does a great job balancing the light and color, and gives you a finished product in video form that you don’t need to do a lot too on the backend to make it usable.
I have to credit Emily for the video idea below as she spotted an amazing sunset brewing out the front windows, so I got out the GoPro and my Joby GorillaPod, and attached it to the railing on our front porch. I really like the video both for the amazing sky, as well as the activity of people and cars moving in and out of the scene as night falls. The video below is less than a minute but I think is worth the view.
So with a couple of these under my belt I have to say I really like both cameras, but the GoPro sure makes the time lapses easier to capture and produce. I will continue to look for opportunities to capture the stunning skies and sunsets that the amazing state of Florida affords us, and will share them on this site whenever possible.