To Be Free.

The pinnacle of the night

    Freedom it seems is rather elusive. It really is when you think about it. I mean here and there I can free up some time or I can find freedom from the weight of the morning in a sip of some of this coffee. I mean things like that are all kind of freedom but really you have to do work to make that happen and it doesn't persist. So we end up kind of putting freedom on a scale of 1 to 10. Where we measure the amount of freedom we feel and we justify the things we do that allow us to reach more freedom. Looking at that, it doesn't seem to really be freedom at all just sort of a work for reward system. What if we were actually free? The other night I actually felt free. It wasn't because I did something to get to do something else. It was just freedom. Pure and simple.
    The night of the 8th I was just getting into bed when I got a text from my mom telling me they were seeing northern lights. So after a little self deliberation I decided to head out to see what I could see. I got down to the lake and caught sight of the familiar glow of the aurora only they were mostly blotted out by the clouds.

First Test Shot

Disappointing as it was, it was a really nice night and I figured I could stick it out for a little while and see what happens. Sure enough after a little wait the clouds cleared and it seemed like the activity of the aurora was starting to pick up. I moved to a better location and got set up. Pretty much just as the clouds had cleared the horizon the sky burst forth in glorious display of bright dancing lights.

The skies breaking loose

It was some of the best motion I had seen in some time. It was an awe inspiring event as most sub-storms (the short periods of heightened brightness and motion of the Aurora) usually are. I spent time watching it and moving my camera around trying to get a couple different shots.

A Proton Arc decided to join the party by intersecting the Milky Way

A close up of some the columns of light

After awhile things went back down to a faint glow and I decided to change locations. I did that and caught a couple more pictures I was happy with and then the clouds started to move in so I tried just one more spot and shortly after the sky had been almost completely boxed in with clouds. At that point I packed up, went home, and went to bed. That was it. Sounds kind of boring I know.
    You might not understand though how novel this all was to me. In the past I had been attempting to create a repertoire of likes and attention to my photography fan page in hopes of being able to sell some of my work. While that is still in the picture I have moved away from that being my focus. So when I do get to out now and shoot it is to relax. In the way that life has been going as of late I kind of just see myself putting down a lot of expectations I had for life and grabbing on to God more and more and in that I found so much freedom. I know what it is that pleases Him and that is all I am focused on. It was in watching those lights dance that I realized where I had gotten to. In the past the clouds would have frustrated me to no end and I probably been so upset I would have just gone and went to bed. For the first time in a long time I really just relax and enjoy the beauty of it and not be so focused on getting the perfect shot that I missed seeing the perfect shot.

How to Shoot Time Lapse Photography (Light and Time Sneak Peak)

Hey everyone, it has been a long time since my last blog so I figured it was about time to put a new one up. A couple weeks ago I was given the opportunity to do a seminar on Time Lapse photography. Needless to say I was pretty excited. So after a couple months of prepping and research further into the subject I came up a fairly in-depth outline that would help most anybody with some experience in video editing and photography shoot some time lapses of their own. So here it is the thick and heavy main outline from my seminar. If you read through it all (or just scroll through it all) you will be rewarded with the 2nd sneak peak to my first time lapse compilation call Light and Time - The Beautiful Dance.

I.       Introduce Subject – To Introduce this subject let me ask a few questions and then answer them.

A.   What is Time Lapse Photography?

1.     a technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured at much lower rates than that used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing.

B.   Do I use different camera settings when shooting a time lapse?

1.     Yes we will get to that soon.

C.   What do I need to shoot a time lapse?

1.     We will cover the gear in depth soon.

D.   What are some of the different styles of time lapse?

1.     Standard

a)    Easiest of them all. All you need is a steady place for the camera to sit, a good composition, good exposure, and a constant interval between shots and you're set to go

b)    Example Video

2.     HDR (High Dynamic Range)

a)    A step above the standard. Requires a little more technical know how and special software to process the images.

b)    More on that later.

c)     Example Video

3.     Motion Control Time Lapse (Think camera moving while shooting the time lapse)

a)    A lot more complex. Requires greater technical expertise. And expensive equipment and/or software

b)    I will explain in detail later.

c)     Example Video

4.     Hyperlapse (Think motion control but hyper)

a)    Equally hard just that this will take more handy work then technical know how. More to come on that.

b)    Example Video

5.     Long Term (Long Time)

a)    Requires a DIY custom or prefabricated rig so highly technical and so on but dramatic for season change and so on.

b)    Essentially all you need is a way to isolate your camera from the elements, a specialized intervalometer, a way to keep your camera powered and a place to put it where it won’t be disturbed.

c)     Won’t cover more on this but there is more info on these in the resources of my full outline resources

d)    Example Video

E.   What are some good things to capture in a time lapse?

1.     Sunrise/Sunsets

2.     People Moving

3.     Stars/Trails

4.     Milky Way

5.     Aurora Borealis

6.     Water Movement

7.     Seasons

F.    How do I make all these photos into a video?

1.     You need a computer program that can shorten the display time of a frame of video. We will discuss this more in depth later. Though I will limit the amount of coverage as I mostly want to focus on how to shoot a time lapse.

G.  Couldn't I just take a long video and speed that up?

1.     Short answer yes.

2.     Long answer you limit the length of time lapsed, the quality, the storage space efficiency, the depth of post processing ability, and use less battery thus less recharge time.

II.    What You Will Need If You Want To Shoot A Time-Lapse

A.   Gear you will need

1.     A camera that can be set to manual exposure (shutter, aperture, ISO, and White Balance), manual focus, and either has a built in intervalometer or can be hooked up to one.

2.     A tripod that will support your cameras weight and will not easily be moved by wind.

3.     An intervalometer that is made for your camera if your camera does not already have one built in.

4.     Computer capable of doing video editing.   

B.   Gear you may want ($=$30-$50, $$=~$100, $$$=$300-800, $$$$=>$800)

1.     A wide or ultra wide angle lens. $$$-$$$$ (Preferably with a wide max aperture for night time lapses)

2.     Neutral Density Filters $$ (a cheaper option is welding glass check the link under resources)

3.     Circular Polarizer Filter $

4.     Motion Control System $$$$

5.     Long Term Time Lapse Rig $$

6.     Photo editing software that can batch edit $$ (Adobe Lightroom)

7.     Advanced Video Editing Software $$-$$$$ (Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut, Sony Vegas, etc.,)

III.  Setting Up  A Camera For A Standard Time Lapse

A.   Get there early. No matter what kind of time lapse or how many times you have shot a time lapse like this one before, be early! Be there an hour early. It will take you time to find the right composition, find the best camera settings for the shot. Set your intervalometer to the right setting do a couple test shots and so on. The last thing you want to do is be in a rush and waste an entire time-lapse because you forgot to set something right.

B.   Find the best shot. Take your time. Don't immediately assume the first angle you find is the best. Make it interesting, you want an interesting foreground for any motion in the sky, use the rule of thirds, framing, leads, and so on to make it interesting. Most importantly you want motion. Something should be moving or changing.

C.   Set up your tripod make sure it is stable. If it's not it may cost you more than just a wasted TL session.

1.     Set-up your camera triple check to make sure you have all your settings right. Think image clarity and consistent exposure. High aperture values are best (when light allows) keeping in mind that digital cameras hit a diffraction limit. Finding your lens's sweet spot is easy it just takes a little research (dxomark.com or slrgear.com).

2.     Shutter speed is another important factor. You want a slow speed to create motion blur for smooth video. If you pause a movie during fast action you will notice a slight blur to the image. Having a high aperture value will make this easier as it will cut down on light. But that might not be enough. In some cases you may want to invest in some ND filters to block some of that light.

3.     Next in day or morning/evening time lapses you want your ISO value as low as possible to keep noise levels down and image quality up.

4.     Last setting is white balance it is one of the most crucial settings to the uniformity of your final product. To save time in post and IQ it's best to get it as close to right in camera as possible. You can either use a custom WB or use a preset that is close to the WB that you wish to achieve. I guarantee as you shoot the WB of your light will change from beginning to end. It can also cause a little color flicker between shots during clouds moving across the sun.

5.     There are also a few other settings you may need to set.

a)    Depending on what you will be doing with the photos in post you will want to change your image quality settings.  I tend to always shoot in Full Res Raw files because I like the ability to edit and plus it allows for motion in post processing. But if memory or hard drive space is an issue or you want to shoot time-lapse at high speeds, jpg might be the better choice, you could even lower the resolution if you so choose. Even if you use small resolution on a 12 Mpix camera it shoots at 2256 x 1504 pixels which is 40% higher resolution than full HD at 1920x 1080 pixels. So if you aren’t planning on doing a lot of color or light adjustments or motion in your time lapse then it makes sense to use this. Also newer cameras have lower res RAW files and this goes with a similar idea to save space and you will still have full control of colors and light.

b)    Different cameras have different features that may cause disunity of your exposure. Such highlight priority and so on. Also there are some custom settings regarding in camera noise reduction that you will want to turn off for low light time lapses.

D.   Take some test shots. If you are waiting for the sunrise raise your ISO make sure your foreground looks good.

E.   Triple Check to make sure your settings are right again!

F.    Set your intervalometer (abbreviated=IV)

1.     First figure out how much time you want to span and how many frames you want your time lapse to be. Most of the time I shoot for 24p so that means I need 24 frames for one second of time lapse footage. I usually try to gather 10 sec. of footage so that is 240 frames or photos. So that's easy. Next if I want to span an hour of time with my time lapse then I need to space those frames out evenly over an hour. I would use this equation 240 frames/60 min. = 4 frames per min./60 sec. = 15 sec per frame. So that means I need to set my intervalometer to cycle (exposure time + interval time = frame cycle) a frame every  15 seconds.

2.     So I would either get to the IV feature on my camera or plug my IV into the camera and set it up according to that.

3.     I would go to the frames and set it to 240

4.     Then go to interval setting and set that to amount of interval time needed which would be the frame cycle time. But keep in mind when shooting long exposures that the camera will need to buffer (process and save data to the memory card) between shots. This usually takes 1-3 seconds but can take up to 10 or more seconds for very long high ISO shots. If there is not enough time between shots for the camera to buffer it will eventually start skipping frames to buffer as needed which will make the footage jumpy and will also result in a shorter than planned time-lapse.

5.     Make sure the exposure length setting is set to zero. Unless shooting with the camera in bulb mode or HDR this will not need to be used for your standard time lapse.

6.     Then finally set the delay, which is the amount of delay between when you press start and when the shutter is engaged for the first time. I recommend at the minimum 5 secs. to make sure that any vibrations in your tripod have completely ceased.

G.  Check your camera settings and IV one more time.

H.   Turn off the camera display as well as the image review to save battery.

I.        Press start on the intervalometer and it will begin counting down the delay time and when that reaches zero then the IV should start controlling the shutter.

1.     *NOTE* If you are unsure of whether or not you set the interval time long enough to buffer between exposures set the delay to zero and let the IV run the shutter for 20-30 frames. If it makes it through those without skipping a frame the camera should keep up for the entirety of the time lapse.

IV.Begin Demonstration of Time Lapse

V.   Set Up For An HDR time lapse

A.   There are only a couple different settings you need to change otherwise the set up is exactly the same.

B.   First is in the camera, you need to set it up for bracketing. That is, it needs to automatically take an exposure at a certain Exposure value then minus a certain amount of exposure value (usually 1-2 stops of light)  then stopped up that same amount of light the 2nd exposure is stopped down.

C.   You may also want to use aperture priority mode if the light will be changing drastically during your time lapse e.g. a sunset or sunrise.

D.   The next step is setting your intervalometer to take 3 shots only per cycle. The trick is setting the exposure length to a couple seconds or more depending on the length of the exposures that make up the brackets. Essentially it will hold the shutter release down for that time allowing the camera to take those exposures and stop (your camera shutters drive mode must be on multi exposure or burst mode).

E.   Then set the interval length like you would in a normal time-lapse depending on the length of time you want to cover. *NOTE* It will take the camera longer to buffer after the 3 shots taken in quick succession as compared to just the one.

F.    You will then want to load these photos into your computer and edit them with an HDR processing software. I will touch on that a little more later.

G.  Some things to consider.

1.     If you are setting up for a sunset or something where the light is going to change drastically and using Aperture Priority to control the exposure value remember that you want to set the IV for the longest exposure length time you think it will take the camera to shoot all 3 shots. So if you anticipate that the longest exposure you will need is a 3 sec, a 1 sec, and 10 sec exposure, your exposure length (in the IV) time should be at least 14 sec.

2.     Once you set your intervalometer as in any case you will not want to stop the sequence(or touch the camera more than is absolutely necessary) until it has finished so you want to make sure you have the above tip right.

3.     The best parts of a sunrise/set usually happen the hour before and after the actual sunrise/set time. Be sure to be there and ready to capture it. The light changes in a matter of seconds.

VI.Set Up for a Motion Time Lapse

A.   Adding motion to your time lapse is one way to give it just a little more spice and can be used to sync better with video music track. There are two ways

1.     Motion Control Systems

a)    This is something I pretty much have no experience with as I have never actually used motion time lapse systems. I do know they are rather expensive and unless you have a deep understanding of electronics and little bit of engineering it will be near impossible to build a DIY version. There are some cheap versions that can rotate the camera and follow the stars and so on. There are also a couple small rigs you can make from cooking timers for day time lapses with quick shutter speeds for cheap but if you want to do low light or sharp landscapes these kind of rigs are of no help.

b)    There is also a lot of learning that would be involved in learning how to use one of these rigs as they have many ways of tracking through a sequence.

2.     Post-Shooting Motion Editing

a)    This method could be equally expensive if you do not already have a professional video editing program. But I am assuming most camps would have a higher level video editing program.

b)    Before getting into software lets do as much in camera as possible first to improve our end result

c)     Camera settings should be set to achieve highest clarity, lowest image file compression, and last but not least widest angle lens without distortion (or minimal).

d)    Then shoot your time lapse it can be either standard or HDR.

e)     Load your photos and process them. I recommend lightroom or another program that can batch edit.

f)      Load the processed photos into your video editing software (if your software allows make sure to fix the clip length so that each photo inserts into the sequence as only one frame in length)

g)    Create 2 sequences.

(1)  The first should be a custom sequence at the resolution of the photo files you will be importing for the sequence. Set the frame rate to your desired rate. ( I prefer 24p)

(2)  The second sequence should be the resolution you want your final product to be at so if you want it to be 720p at 24p then you would set your resolution to 1280x720 and frame rate to 23.97.

h)    Insert the photos into the full resolution sequence. Make sure all the photos are in order

i)       Insert the full res sequence into your final product sequence.

j)      As you will notice the picture will look very zoomed in. That’s because you are looking at an area of 2 million pixels out of the 12 million that make up a 12 MP full resolution image. You will need to shrink the scale of the image to make it fit better. But you don’t want to shrink it all the way because you want to leave room to move throughout the image to create the effect of the camera moving through the shot.

k)    Then keyframe where you want your first frame to start on the full res sequence, go to your last frame, and keyframe where you want the full res sequence to stop. You now have a motion Time-Lapse shot.

l)       A couple random tips…

(1)  You can take a vertical (portrait orientation) shot and pan upwards through it. (Remember though if you shoot vertical you will need to make sure image file has enough resolution to fill a frame of the final product e.g. if your final product is going to be 1080p your image file will have to have a pixel height of at least 1920)

(2)  You can keyframe scale to make it look like you are zooming in/out

(3)  Combine zoom and pan to add even more attractive shots.

VII.          How to set up and shoot a Hyperlapse Time-Lapse Sequence

A.   Hyperlapse is essentially motion time lapse except that the camera moves a lot further than what a motion control rig will cover.

B.   This method definitely will take a lot of planning and work to complete but they definitely turn out really awesome so it’s worth it.

C.   You will need your camera, tripod, intervalometer, and a place where there is a way of measuring constant distance (e.g. tile floor) or you could use a rope pre-marked for even spacing over the distance you want to cover or a vehicle that can move at a very constant speed without much vibration.          

D.   Then you need to figure out what you want the main subject to be or what the camera will remain pointed at throughout the time lapse. Perhaps it’s just a point on the horizon or maybe it’s a building or an entrance to a building. This will be easy if your camera has a live view option.

E.   Then figure out the track of the camera and how to move the camera the same distance between each shot.

F.    Then get your camera to the right exposure settings

G.  Do a practice run for several shots to get a feel for how long it will take to move and reset and let the camera settle and take the shot.

H.   You then want to set your intervalometer to give enough time to reset and let your camera settle.

I.        Then you go through and start the shooting making each transition as smoothly and as quickly as possible.

J.    Otherwise, you would process it as normal

VIII.       Here are some different tips and settings to use for some different situations.

A.   Sunrise/set

1.     Sunrise/sets can be some of the most dramatic time lapses out there given the right conditions.

2.     You should always find the spot you want to shoot from in advance of the sunrise/set.

3.     Try aiming to the left or right or even completely opposite of the sunrise/set. Some of the most beautiful colors occur opposite the sunset. Reflections of the clouds in the water also make for a dramatic effect.

4.     Try using a solid ND filter to give yourself longer exposures especially where water or clouds are involved.

5.     Polarizers also can make colors more vibrant.

6.     A graduated ND filter can give a single exposure (non HDR) time lapse far greater dynamic range giving the sky a darker exposure allowing for a brighter exposure of the ground and trees.

7.     Often times HDR is best used during a sunrise/set. As it has a similar effect to the graduated ND filter giving you far greater dynamic range.

8.     When it comes to camera settings a warmer white balance is good. It will bring the reds and oranges out.

9.     Also something to consider is shooting in AV (aperture priority) mode (for both standard and HDR) this way your camera will automatically adjust to the lighting. It may add a little flicker to your time lapse but for the most part that will clean up by using frame blending in post processing. In the end it gives you a far greater transition.

10. Sunrises/sets are some of the hardest to find the best exposure for because the light changes fast and often, so practice!

B.   People Moving

1.     Entry ways and other high traffic areas make for cool photos of people coming in and out of the shot.

2.     I recommend longer shutter speed for these probably about 1/60^th of a second to give moving people a little motion blur.

C.   Stars/Milky Way

1.     Night Time Lapses can be tricky as they require a lot more time, a little more experimenting, and experience to know the best settings.

2.     Settings will vary depending upon the maximum aperture of the lens, how well the camera processes high ISO sensitivity and the amount of light in the sky at night.

3.     You will definitely want to plan out in advance for shooting things like the milky way or shadows cast by the moon. As the milky way and moon are obviously not always going to be in the same spot. The milky way is not in the same place at midnight in mid June as it is at midnight in mid August. It also changes the angle it’s at throughout the night and over time. Luckily it follows the same paths every year so you can predict where it will be with a few different resources out there.

4.     Another thing you will have to plan on is what phase the moon is in. If it is full (or near full) do not expect to get a brightly exposed milky way or stars. The moon lights up our atmosphere causing the light from the star and milky way to be drowned out. This is doubly true if it is a humid summer night but also less true on a crisp winter night.

5.     Another thing that will affect your ability to photograph the night sky is light pollution. In other words city lights. The further away from city lights you are the clearer the night sky becomes.

6.     Finally before we discuss camera settings there is one more thing to consider… the earth’s rotation. As the earth rotates our view of the stars move. Which means that you can only photograph the stars so long before they start to become a streak of light rather than a round normal looking star. To figure this out we need to use the rule of 500. Which is if your exposure is longer than 500 divided by your focal length then the stars will appear to streak. For example I shoot with an 11mm lens on 1.6 crop frame which equals 17mm so I would take 500/17=29.41 sec.. 29.41 sec. Is the longest exposure I can shoot without the stars starting to appear oblong. I shoot 30 secs and the oblongness of the star is very minuscule but is noticeable if you’re a crazy pixel peeper like me(but for the purposes of shooting stills for time lapse a tiny bit of oblongness will go unnoticed).  So now that we know the longest exposure we can use we can move to setting the rest of our settings. For Milky Way shots you will want to use the longest exposure possible.

7.     First off aperture, the widest aperture is going to be your best bet. If your lens is very soft at its maximum aperture stop it down 1/3 maybe 2/3s of a stop of light at most but you want your sensor to get as much light as possible.

8.     Also usually the more you can see of the night sky in your field of view, the better.

9.     Next up is ISO. This will totally be dependent on your cameras ability to suppress noise during exposures. Some cameras can handle ISO 6400 some can hardly handle ISO 800. Usually the best way to figure it out is 1 or 2 stops of light worth of ISO down from your camera’s max ISO is about the best your camera will do for balance of exposure and image quality.

10. Finally you want to get your camera to produce as raw an image as possible. What I mean is if you can turn off any extra features that cause the camera to have to do anything other than save the image in camera turn them off.  Any of these features will add to the amount of time it takes your camera to write the image to your memory card which will mean a greater interval between shots. Which means more time to take the time lapse and could cause you to miss a meteor streaking the sky or something like that.

11. Lastly a couple things to note pretty much any night you shoot you will need to keep your lens warmer then the air temp. If you do not you will end up with either a foggy or frosty lens either of which will destroy a time lapse. There is a simple, cheap solution. Hand warmers. Find a way to strap one to your lens barrel and you will never deal with a foggy or frosty lens again. If you can’t grab any get something to act as a lens hood or something to keep moisture from landing on the front lens element (just make sure it doesn’t end up in your shot).  Which leads me to my last thing to note.

12. Some people think you could just swap UV filters and keep shooting. For one, that could cause you to bump the camera causing your shot to move and a very jumpy time lapse. Two, UV filters cause light distortion at night. It will show up as centrifugal rings it’s noticeable especially in time lapses because everything will be moving but the rings of darker exposure. So definitely remove any filters when shooting night time lapses.

13. There are a few tutorials listed in the resources that go more in depth especially when it comes to processing milky way shots.

D.   Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)

1.     The hardest part of shooting the aurora is figuring out when they will happen they don’t happen every night. They don’t even happen every week. For us in Minnesota during the peak of the solar cycle you could get lucky at most 2-3 times in a month. Usually though it’s about 1 every other month. I won’t get into details about forecasting northern lights because that is an entire seminar on its own. Check the resources under northern lights and read as much you can on them as possible talk to other people that chase the lights and so on. The lights are elusive at best!

2.     Essentially a lot of the things we just discussed for stars and the milky way apply to time lapsing the aurora. Factors like the moon phase, light pollution, humidity, rule of 500, and so on will all still play a role in properly exposing the aurora.

3.     The one difference is though the aurora move a lot faster than the stars appear to so you want to use as short of a shutter speed as possible to keep movement to be as realistic as possible. (It looks better trust me)

4.     So when it comes to camera settings the same idea as photographing the stars comes into play, go for the best exposure while keeping image quality high.

5.     Another thing is you want to fix your white balance. I set mine for the florescent preset if the moon Is out or daylight if the moon is not. These won’t get you spot on but they will get you close which means minimal distortion from adjustments.

6.     Aperture is the same as stars wide as possible stopped down only a little if absolutely necessary.

7.     ISO should be set to whatever the highest ISO your camera will process the best.

8.     Exposure should be set last as it will be variable against how much light the other settings bring in and how bright the aurora are. Keep in mind what is forecasted for that night. If a CME from a giant flare is inbound then be prepared for fast, bright, high in the sky, aurora displays. If it’s a small coronal hole bringing in the solar winds for the night prepare for dim, slow, low on the horizon, aurora displays.

9.     Like mentioned with the stars you want as raw of an image as possible especially with Aurora Time Lapse the less time between shots the smoother and more stunning it will look.

10. Keep filters off the lens and heaters on. Especially during high sky display your lens will fog up quickly pointing upwards if there is no heat on your lens.

11. If you want to time lapse both the aurora and milky way it is possible from late fall to early summer but usually won’t work when there are very bright displays. You will need to expose the milky way so you will need longer exposures which will mean less definition to the lights but it looks very dramatic so it’s worth it!

12. Last tip be patient! Sometimes shooting the Aurora doesn’t go as planned or they don’t flare up right away. Twice, just as I was about to pack up for the night the lights flared up and I got to see some of the most amazing displays I have ever seen.

E.   Star Trails Time Lapse

1.     Star Trail Time Lapses are easy to shoot and easy to edit especially if you get the free star stacking software and leave you with a very eye catching time lapse.

2.     Essentially shooting a star trail time lapse works the same as getting a time lapse of the milky way.

3.     You need an exposure time just over your rule of 500 result. So in my instance I shoot 40 sec exposures. This will most likely require you to use a bulb mode and an intervalometer to repeatedly get the same shutter timing.

4.     Aperture is just like any other night time lapse shots.

5.     White Balance should be constant. I usually set a custom white balance to get a decently balanced shot and then I know the white balance will remain the same all the way through the shot.

6.     ISO on the other hand is open to change. If you want to see tons of stars and a bit of the milky-ness of the Milky Way trailing through the shot then keep your ISO high but if you want to throttle down the amount of stars a bit bring your ISO down a stop or two. When shooting at high ISO speeds the longer star trails can get pretty busy so sometimes its not a bad thing to drop the ISO get better defined trails.

7.     When setting your intervalometer you will need to set your exposure length for how long you want to expose for then set for the interval time according to how long your camera will take to buffer.

8.     I know I have said before to make sure your camera saves the least processed file to the card and especially in this instance it is the most important because if you don’t make the quickest interval time possible your star trails will look bumpy and awkward.

9.     Saying that, I should also mention the obvious, the longer the exposure you take the longer it will take your camera to write the file to the memory card.

10. Next you will want to process your photos so they look the way you want them to look.

11. If you want to cover  more time with your star trail time lapse you can use longer exposure time just remember not to make it too long or you will end up with gaps in your trails because of prolonged buffer times

12. Then you can do two things you can both put them in a star stacking program like Starstax and have it save after each stack and then take those photos and put them in a sequence or you can make a sequence of the non stacked images and use cc time blend in adobe after effects. There are a couple tutorials in the resources section below that show how both work.

F.    Waterscapes/Clouds/Fog

1.     Another thing that can make for interesting time lapse are other natural objects that move such as the fog, clouds, or water.

2.     Capturing these different things will strictly depend on the effect you want to create.

3.     You can create normal clouds moving across the sky quite easily. But you could make clouds appear more like a stream by using a 10 stop ND filter. You can create similar effects with fog.

4.     Depending on what kind of body of water you want to time lapse you create a host of different effects. Rivers can turn into flickering light or you can shorten your exposure length and give it more motion. Waves can move fast across the water or you can really lengthen the exposure and give the water calmer more flowing look. It all comes down to experimenting.

G.  Changing Seasons,

1.     Summer to Fall, Fall to Winter, Winter to Spring, and Spring back to Summer all can be filmed        using time-lapse specifically long term time lapse rigs. Again as with all of this, experiment with         it.

IX.            How to make a stack of time lapse photos into a time lapse video.

A.   As I have already explained essentially all the photos you take in series need to be arranged into a slide show except a slide show that cycles through each "slide" very quickly much like a flip book animation.

B.   This can be easy and fast or it can be complicated and can be a rather long process. The later will obviously bring about better results.

C.   There are a couple different workflows you could follow so I will chart them by the way I know of.

1.     Simple

2.     High Quality Quick

3.     High Quality Advanced

4.     High Quality HDR

D.   You can obviously get a lot more advanced in your processing than even the advanced work flow displayed above it comes down to creativity, time, and experimentation. There are several solid tutorials on these workflows listed in the resources that would be an excellent place to begin if this is all new to you.

X.  Conclusion

A.   As you may notice there are some key factors for making a good time lapse.

1.     Good Composition

2.     The Right Settings

3.     Planning

4.     Experimentation

5.     Above all else creation and innovation

B.   Mix all of these things and you will have a beautifully unique, attention grabbing time lapse.

C.   A time lapse that will make people excited about spending time at your camp and that will bring glory to God        through that and just by the display of his glory which is evident as we watch his creation in action.

D.   Thank you for listening. I hope this was helpful and not shot over your heads.

And now that you have endured all of that here is the 2nd sneak peak at my very first time lapse compilation...

Light and Time - The Beautiful Dance Teaser 2 from Open the Door Productions on Vimeo.

Thanks for checking this all out! Be sure to like my facebook page if you haven't already!

The Time I Saw Chaos Getting Hammered Into Grace

"He who has eyes let him see"

Two weeks ago now I was getting geared up for my winter camping trip to the boundary waters with a group of some of my closest friends. My prayers for this trip were that God would reveal himself in some awesome ways through my time spent out in His creation. I have to admit I was rather anxious about this trip. In the past I was in decent shape but sitting at a desk for a couple years had made me kind of squishy in terms of fitness. Despite my training for the month before I still did not feel prepared. It wasn't just that though there was just a general anxiousness in my heart. I had to drag myself out the door pretty much. I think it had a lot to do with the enemy trying to drag me down.

By God's grace I did not give in, I pushed and shoved my way to Duluth to meet the rest of the crew. After arriving, there still was no reprieve from the tension in my heart. That night we did not get to bed til about midnight and we had to be up at 3 to get ready to hit the road to make it up there at a decent time. Sleep did not come easily as my anxiety got the best of me. Before I knew it I was up and running to get my gear strapped into my pulk (sled). On a side note I was pretty excited to try my new pole design for my pulk and to get out and start taking pictures. In what seemed like a flash we were turning on the gunflint trail, then the lake access, then I was clipped in and marching toward our campsite, all of the sudden we were there, then the work began, then it was night, then I was in the tent talking about life with with my buddy Joe and that was it. The entire day was gone, all 17 hours of it was just a wash of movement and survival (goes to show you that despite having more time in your day doesn't mean it would give more time to relax). It wasn't until the next day when I took off on my snowshoes to find a quiet corner of the lake that God finally revealed all that was going on to me.

After finding said quiet corner of the lake I set up my camera for a time lapse found a decent rock for a seat and sat down. I opened my bible and started reading some of Luke. I got to chapter 14 and started reading Jesus' parables about people who missed out on an amazing opportunity. In some cases they had to simply let go of their pride, other cases they had to give up their own desires (which I suppose is kind of pride as well), and yet others should have sat down and considered the worth of it. Finally, after the length Jesus went to illustrate his points he succinctly concludes with 3 rather intense sentences. “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

...

O porcupine, caught high in a tree, if only your little eyes could see, you would know the grace that surroundeth thee!

It was as if the aperture of my eyes were wrenched open letting the light of revelation pour into my mind. The last couple days made so much more sense then they had mere minutes ago. As the lens of my mind's eye focused in on the words God had written out for me, it clicked. All that was lost in the movement and survival came back and it was shown to be oh so good.

Sometimes life gets crazy, a lot of the times actually. When we were driving in to our access point we came up off the lake and up the hill where the moisture from Lake Superior had turned into a freezing mist. It caked all the trees in a heavy white frost. This persisted through the entire hike into our camp

site. It was incredibly beautiful. Especially as the mist turned to light snowflakes that fluttered down around us. Yet, I never really took the time to really take it in. I was so very focused on getting to the camp site and taking pictures that I totally missed out on the beauty of the frost. It seems sad I suppose but it all had to happen. I had to push. That's the thing about these excursions, they have a way of pushing you. It's out there in the constant cold silence that everything is moved around and stretched which then exposes all of those hidden nooks and crannies in the heart. I mean what better metaphor for life. You have to pull all the things you find necessary through the wilderness over hills and through deep, powdery snow. The more you hang on to the harder the trip becomes. Sometimes we become so occupied with the "trip" and making it happen that we totally miss the point of it all. It was ironic because even as I sat there writing down some of these
thoughts the snowflakes began their dance down from the sky once more.I was captivated (as I always am) by the beautiful intricate designs of the tiny flakes that found rest on my sleeves. Despite the peacefulness by which they came they were creating such a racket in my head. Each one was screaming, "you are cared for!" It hit me that I am loved despite all my foolishness. I mean I was out of shape because of laziness and complacency, I had my burden to pull on my pulk, and I had gotten caught up in "getting there." I had really screwed this opportunity up for myself. Yet, the trip wasn't over just like God's grace... it doesn't end when we mess it all up and let loose chaos. He just keeps taking that chaos we make and hammers it into something beautiful... a highlander style claymore... ahem... grace. Whether or not we are looking for it, it is there. Whether it's a bed of freshly fallen snow or colorful, unique lichen or the frozen lines of an icicle. His grace completely surrounds us constantly we just have accept it. All these beautiful things are not just merely signs of God's glory, creativity, and love but also, and I think most importantly, His grace.

In his fore knowing of our sin He has still chosen to bless us with it all. Even when we are weighed down by our faults and sin God is always surrounding us with such things to remind us His grace is always available. We just have accept it. No pride, no excuses, it's worth it. If we miss that we aren't fit for a pile of crap, so we better open up our eyes. So clip in and pull away remember it's not about getting there, it's about experiencing and knowing God's grace on the way and bringing others in on that experience. Because there is nothing like the light and warmth of the big bonfire at the end.

As always, take er easy.


For more photos from the trip click here

O, Porcupine

As of late, I have been on the hunt for owls. If you have tried to spot an owl on purpose before you might know how daunting of a task this can be. Just think of how many times in your life you have seen an owl in the wild. To find an owl in the wild means a lot of time wondering aimlessly through the woods looking for trees that would make good owl roosts and then exploring the base of said trees for pellets(pellets are the left overs from owl picnics). 

Yesterday after work I set off into the woods for another hour of searching high and low for these illusive creatures. It was nice to be outside in the cool, invigorating air. As my feet crunched through the snow, I was taken by the beauty of the tiny snow flakes that blew in the icy wind. The sun was already crouching down to find its bed behind the horizon which turned the flying frost into a golden glow around the trees by which it fell. I wondered a good while spotting many tracks from deer and what I assume were coyotes but no owls, nor any of their leftovers. I had been out there for almost an hour and there wasn't a whole ton of light left and I decided to break off the trail I had been blazing and head back for the main track. As I was gaining my bearing as to which way I would need to head to get back to the trail my eyes caught view of a dark mass sitting high, on the chalky, grey, limb of a poplar tree.

 For a half second I thought I had accidentally caught sight of my elusive prey but alas it was not but a porcupine. I stood there a good while watching it... not that there was much to watch it hardly moved a muscle. I was taken back yet still, as I watched the wind blow it's bushy fur, it sat there huddled half way out on this branch, as the whole tree swung back and forth in the breeze. It definitely wasn't warm out either I am guessing the wind chills had to be getting close to -10 by this point. Yet, it just sat there... Eventually a stiff gust hit my face and snapped me back to reality. So I set up my camera and snapped a couple pictures of it (I wish I would have taken video). Then I packed my camera back up and watched it a few moments more and headed off to find the main trail. 

As I hiked out though I couldn't shake the image of that porcupine from my head. Why was I so fascinated by it? I have seen them before in the wild and gotten much closer to them. I think it was just thought of it being out on that limb in the cold breeze. I kept thinking why did it just sit out there like that? I mean it could have sat against the trunk of the tree or could have climbed one of the many pine trees nearby. Surely, the dense pine boughs would have provided a some what better shelter from the wind. But it just sat there! Stupid animal! I caught myself in that thought though, as I remembered all the times I avoided things in the interest of self preservation. Things that would have made life more fulfilling and amazing and realized I am not much different. I can't count the number of times I have been out a limb, spiritually and mentally, rocking precariously back and forth in the stinging, cold gusts. Each time I was surrounded by opportunities for warmth and comfort and yet I sat there a huddled mass out on that branch trying to hold on to the little warmth my body could produce. 

The thing is though for the porcupine the winds will eventually calm and the air will warm and it can go about its busyness. In my experience, those winds never went away and the air definitely didn't get any warmer. The longer I sat there the colder and more windy it became. Often, it got to be that I was left with a choice either break out and deal with it or check out and pretend it's not happening. I seemed to favor the later of the two. It seemed easier... I could pretend it was alright and distract myself with a whole arsenal of busyness that kept me from remembering the reality of that branch. But even still, every now and then a gust of that icy cold wind would blast me and snap me back to reality. Back just in time to that branch snapping and me crashing through a few more branches til I hit the ground. Scratched and battered I would finally climb the pine tree that was always nearby and find solace it in the shelter of its branches. 

All this being said I hope you get the point of it all. God always has something better for us. No matter how cold the wind is, it will always be worth letting go of your own warmth to get closer to His warmth. Even if the wind is too cold and you die on the way rest easy for in a blink of an eye you will find yourself in the very presence of Him never again having to be out on that branch. 

Take 'er easy. 



Click here to see more of my photos.