So after about a week of editing, fixing and cutting, here's my the product. The visibility was not the best but was it still alright. Had to edit out a few mistakes like pesky lens caps and me getting caught on coral =P, but it was all good.
Thanks muchly to dive master/instructor Archie, who was ever so accommodating and professional.
Anyhow hope you enjoy it (watch it in HD!!! click the option at the bottom of the Youtube frame) .....
The timelapse sunrise was taken on the south-east corner of Uson Island - Palawan, Philippines. A localized map is shown below.
So needless to say when you're diving and filming at the same time you can easily get distracted takeing in your amazing surroundings and accidentally forget that your filming!
This leads me to my second point...
Lesson #2: Secure loose cables or they WILL get caught!!!
These are, of course, rather "common sense" things to say/do but when you're in-the-moment and just itching to jump into the water/sea you may forget to do this (as I did).
So take a moment, get your dive buddy to check your gear. Besides obviously checking each other's BC, regulators and other dive equipment, take a few moments to make sure you secure (tuck-away/tie-together/tape along side) any camera cables, mono-pods, cases etc. floating behind you.
It wont take long, and believe me it'll save you more time in the long run, not to mention it'll save your shot/clip.
The video below shows me getting snagged onto coral just as I am doing a follow shot into a world war two Japanese wreck.
This is what happens WHEN YOU DO NOT SECURE YOUR GEAR.....
Warning
As side note, wreck diving is fun but can also be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Being underwater and in a confined space can cause inexperienced divers to get disorientated and panic. If you're new at diving, please don't go into a wreck alone,
and definitely do NOT be filming or trying to fumble around with cameras
or settings or cables. The last thing you want is to get tangled up
with cable/coral, in zero visibility (because you have panicked and
kicked up all the dust and silt around you), and be in an enclosed
area/wreck where no one can see or help you. Always be safe.
With the Tips and Tricks that i have outlined in my previous posts HOPEFULLY you'd be G'ed up enough to get out there and actually get some awesome shots of your own.
Getting out there is the fun part........
Seeing amazing animals while you get out there is the fun part......
knowing that you're going to be getting some stunning shots is the fun part...........
knowing that you will see an unbelievable sight...is the fun part....
EVERYTHING is the fun part.....
Everything on this page was taken on North Dome (opposite Half dome). Took about 2-3 hours to hike there from the trail-head but it was well worth it. The sun set was amazing and the view was even better:
Quite annoying how Blogger cant center photos properly......
Details:
Location: Yosemite National Park
Camera: GoPro HDHERO2
Settings: 11 mp on .5 sec interval
Time of Arrival: 5:07pm
Duration of Time Lapse: 2 hour 3 minutes
Number of shots in sequence: 13,174
Total size used: 28.8 Gigabytes
Wind condition: Strong (especially at sunset) - find shelter when waiting for timelapse
Temperature: 10 to 15 degrees Celsius ( 50 - 60 degrees Fahrenheit)
Hiking time: 2-3 hours from trail head
Lessons
learned: Bring bear spray!!!
So, its the weekend and probably, just like many of you, I'm trying to catch up on the massive sleep debt that i accrued over the week....Going through the daily grind of work and the rat-race can't be good for us....hence i try to make myself daydream about as many of my past travels / adventures as possible.
The one memory that keeps coming up in my mind was my wanderings through Yosemite National Park in California, USA. This was such an amazing experience it is so hard to put into words!
Let me just SHOW YOU:
(Click on the image to see it in a separate window without Blogger's annoying gadgets and links getting in the way)
From a location just west of the above shot I took a time lapse shot of the sunrise (from pitch black darkness):
(see below for location details)
Standing atop Glacier Point (where i took the above time lapse) and watching
the first rays of sunlight EXPLODE over the mountain ranges is something
that can only be experienced (and to a lesser extent shown).
If you only have time to see one thing in Yosemite National Park, make it this!!!!
What I'm trying to get at with this blog and my ramblings is to tell and show you that you don't need super fancy equipment which costs thousands of dollars. I took the above photo with my little Cannon Powershot D10. Its not an SLR, nor a DSLR, it had no special filters or "thingamajigs". Its more about being at the right place, at the right time and knowing how to use your little camera. I'll cover panoramic photography in later posts.
Anywho.....let me continue with another time lapse tip...
Having a normal sized tripod (the ones that are about 4 feet high), are good....BUT SOMETIMES...it is better to have the tiny miniature ones. I'll explain....
Sometimes (as previously stated) you may find yourself in a very high traffic "touristy" area where there are many people who may "accidentally" bump your camera, my tip was to PROTECT YOUR SPACE....now if you have a big tripod, you'll have more area to protect and also more chances either you or someone near you may bump your tripod's long legs (while you are busy trying to protect your space). A small tripod makes your area of protection much smaller, you can basically cover it with your body and arms!
On top of that, if you are on the edge of a cliff / mountain (which is already very high above the ground), having a tall tripod (i.e. 4 extra feet high) is not going to make much of a difference.
Finally if you have to hike several hours to your special location, you're going to want to minimize your pack's weight. If your little tripod is going to do just as good a job as your big tripod then why take up the extra room and added weight?
The above timelapse was taken using just a mini tripod (shown below):
So having a mini tripod is: light weight, small sized and handy.....but let me also warn you that having such a small compact piece of equipment near a cliff edge is VERY EASILY knocked over/off. So be careful and stay clear of it once you have set your time lapse up.
Location: Yosemite National Park
Camera: GoPro HDHERO2
Settings: 11 mp on .5 sec interval
Time of Arrival: 5:30 am
Duration of Time Lapse: 1 hour 50 minutes
Number of shots in sequence: 11,875
Total size used: 17.3 Gigabytes
Wind condition: Negligible
Temperature: 15 to 18 degrees Celsius (
59 - 64.5 degrees Fahrenheit)
Hiking time: 10 mins from trail head
Lessons
learned: Small tripods work just as effectively on the edge of cliffs/mountains as tall ones. Save yourself the weight and space and carry more food, water and clothing instead!
I find the best thing about taking photographs / time-lapse shots (like the one above), is the fact that you have to be OUT THERE.... in the wilderness...in amongst the trees, mountains and animals.
(Well....to be more accurate it is actually the other way around, the taking of photographs / time-lapse shots is the by-product of taking a trip into the wilderness!!!) :)
I find that there is nothing better than arriving at your destination before sunrise, and knowing that you are the only human about to witness one of the most amazing sights that is taken for granted each day by almost everyone on the planet!!! And in doing so. knowing that you will be the only human to witness the sunrise for your special location, be it a cliff, canyon-edge, prairie, mountain or hill top. HOW SPECIAL IS THAT?!?!?!?!?
Inevitably when you are out there on that cliff, with all your equipment set-up (and your camera snapping away your time-lapse shots), you will have at least an hour or two spare to just sit back, be calm and take in your surroundings.
During this "quiet" and serene time, i find that i can almost feel the life in the trees, the wind, the little animals, the mountain and the very ground that I stand on. And when i say "quiet" i'm not referring to the audio level (i.e. air pressure waves that hit our ears) but the Noise that we all inherently have in our minds and thoughts ....... This feeling of LIFE (or whatever it is), is very peaceful and very addictive!!!!! (Addictive in the sense that when you return to city life you will CRAVE the peacefulness and serenity of the wilderness, you will almost experience withdrawal symptoms!!)
Having said that, being as one with nature, doesn't guarantee you safety from stupidity and dangerous animals. I have to admit that i have, on more than one ocassion, been guilty of the former. This leads me to my next tip...
Tip #4 Never risk life, limb or injury for the shot
One of the first and most important rules of hiking (especially in Yosemite or Grand Teton National Park), is to never hike alone. Another is to always carry bear spray!! I have been guilty of ignoring both at the same time, to my potential detriment. To those of you who have never encountered a situation where there was is potential for encountering a Black, Brown or GRIZZLY BEAR, this may sound quite funny....and for the most part i too found it quite hilarious.
That is...until...the morning i shot the above time-lapse. I had parked my car and hiked (in the dark) a fare way into shrubs to an area where i thought would be a good spot. I had set up my tripod, GoPro and was in the middle of my "quiet time" when i realized that there was very little sound, no birds, no little animals and no movement. You could say that i sensed a "disturbance in the force"!! It then dawned on me that should i encounter a hostile bear, chances are that i would not be able to out run it, not our climb it and definitely not out fight it! My car and the road (i.e. help) was too far to matter and of course i had no bear spray....
Fortunately, the "disturbance" that i sensed was not a bear...it was a small family of ELK!!! They stooped, looked at me, perceived no threat and proceed to walk around me. HOW AMAZING WAS THAT?!?!?!? Yes..i still need more training in the use of "the force"! hahahaha!!!! Clearly i need to go back to the Degobah System!!! ;D
This was not the Elk that i saw while taking my time-lapse, this was taken slightly north of my position.
Tip #5 Always bring the right gear/clothing for the situation.
I must admit that i was slightly ill prepared for the morning i took this time-lapse. When i got out of my car to start my hike the temperature was WELL BELOW FREEZING. Though the wind chill was minimal the low temperature itself was enough to cause numbness in my fingers, toes and face!
I figured that I my hike would warm me up but unfortunately in the time it took for me to set up my gear and get the GoPro going my core temperature had dropped back down and the ambient temperature had not risen that much! I tried to get a somewhat accurate reading of the temperature so i took off my protrek watch and placed it right next to my tripod. After a few minutes this is what the reading showed:
Just in case you can't see it clearly, my watch shows -2.7 degrees Celsius!!! Thats 27.17 degrees Fahrenheit!!!!!! And as the sunlight had not reached me yet, I quickly began to shiver and shake!!! I had to ride it out till the sun hit me. And i did ride it out...unfortunately.....the temperature DID NOT rise much after that!!!! So ..I had no choice but to head back as all i had on was a thin shell/jacket, jeans and sneakers! Not hardly what you would call cold-weather gear....
Before i left though i managed to grab a couple of pretty neat snaps!!
(Click to ENLARGE!!! Taken with my Cannon Powershot D10)
(Click to enlarge) **NB the red dot in this case is not as exact as
my map for Glacier National Park as I had wondered for quite some time
before finding the right "spot"
Location: Grand Teton National Park
Camera: GoPro HDHERO2
Settings: 11 mp on .5 sec interval
Time of Arrival: 5:30am
Duration of Time Lapse: 1 hour 28minutes
Number of shots in sequence: 8422
Total size used: 16 Gigabytes
Wind condition: Negligible
Temperature: -5 to 0 degrees Celsius (23 - 32 degrees Fahrenheit)
Lessons learned: Be mindful of potentially dangerous animals (no matter how "at one" with nature you are) and bring WARM CLOTHES!!!
(See below for details on location, camera, conditions etc.)
Time-lapse photography is one of the coolest things you can do!! However, not all cameras can do this. My little Cannon Powershot D10 can't, and neither can my other point-and-shoots. I do know that some pretty high end DSLRs can do this but i never have one, nor have the $$$ to get one of those, hence as always i used what i had on hand.
I only discovered time-lapse photography when i bought my GoPro. Now this is one odd little camera. It's essentially a box, the size of a match box, with a fish-eye lens. It does not generically come with an LCD screen at the back (purchased separately), nor it have a viewfinder. It does however rate all the way down to a depth of 60m (well and truly more than an open-water diver should go to), and takes HD videos at a rate of 60 frames per second (handy if you're into making super slow-motion shots...i'll talk about that in later posts).
(For more information click on "The Equipment" tab at the top of this blog)
Anyhow, the GoPro DOES have a time-lapse function, it have its limitations but as a whole if works a great!!
So as a brief indroduction, time-lapse photography is essentially a series of photographs taken at regular intervals and played back in sequence. This series of of photos (as like any other ordinary digital photo), can be taken at any resolution/size you want. The total number of photos you take would be determined by how long you want to capture the scene for and the time duration between each photograph.
Tip #1. The smaller the time interval the smoother the time-lapse
As an example I keep my resolution on 11 megapixels, and a time interval of .5 seconds (i.e. it will take a photo two times every second). With a 16 gigabyte SD card this will last about 1 hour 25 minutes (give or take 10 mins). Also it is important that you get an SD card that is Class 10. This means that information/data is able to be written to this card quicker, and you need this because you'll be take an 11 megapixel photo every half second!!!! If you by an SD card that is a lower class, then this will slow down each shot and you will not be taking a photo every .5 seconds.
In the 1 hour 20 mins that this 16 gig SD card lasts, the GoPro will take about 8600 photos (give or take 200 shots).
The really cool thing about time-laps shots is that when you stand there and watch things happens, you basically see NOTHING because things move so slow...but when you play it back it is TOTALLY AWESOME!
This, trough first-hand experience, is REALLY hard to do when you, your tripod and camera are standing exposed on the side of a hill/mountain and the wind is blowing so strong that trees are bending and leaves/gravel are flying around!! So what i suggest is, if you can and if it is your budget, get a good, sturdy tripod. Even better get a tripod that enables you to hook your backpac onto its fulcrum (area where all three tripod legs join). What this will do is use the weight of your backpack (mine was quite heavy), to help keep your tripod down and not move around with wind. Of course you'll have to get all your necessary equipment / food out first, you can't touch your backpack once its hooked onto your tripod and your camera shooting.
If you dont have a backpack or a hook to hook your backpack on, then adapt! Make sure there is no loose gravel under the feet of your tripod. Make sure that the feet of your tripod are flat. Once this is done perhaps consider putting a few large rocks on-top of the tripod feet/legs to make sure that it will not be blown over. Move any loose branches or rocks AWAY from your tripod legs. With the wind, branches can move, causing sticks and rocks to roll down hills and bump your tripod / camera.
Tip #3. Do not touch your camera once you have started!!!
The
trick with time lapse shots is that it is vitally imperative that the
camera does not move (not even a millimeter, not even micrometer!!!!).
The reason for this is that if you're taking a very large scene, say a
canyon, mountains or just open scenery, any movement (even the slightest touch), will be persevered
as "camera shake" when its played back in sequence. This is very hard to
get rid of and will frustrate you even more if the scene you are taking
is a very beautiful one, distracting attention to the shake rather than
keeping it on the actual scenery.
My suggestion to you would be once the camera is securely on the tripod and the tripod secured to the ground, step away from it!!! The temptation will be to hang around close to your camera but inevitably you will move around and each time you move there is a chance you will bump your camera, or you will bump something which will roll down to your camera. Either way something will touch your camera causing a slight change in camera angle.
Timelapse shots can take up to several hours and you would not want to have all those hours wasted with your beautiful time-lapse shots RUINED just because of a slight accidental "bump". This tip becomes very pertinent when you are shooting in an area with lots of people/tourists. If you MUST go to a very "touristy" spot which is in a high traffic area you MUST PROTECT YOUR SPACE!!!
In some cultures it is very normal to stand right next to someone rubbing shoulders with them while they take a photograph/shot. For what you're doing DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN WITH YOU AND YOUR TIME LAPSE CAMERA!!! Yes they may be unaware that what you are doing is very sensitive and they may accidentally push/bump you or your camera.... but in doing so, all those hours you spent capturing your time-lapse shots will be wasted and you might as well pack-up and go somewhere else.
This warning extends not just to being bumped but to having someone/mass-toursts shake or alter the ground/foundations that you/your camera is on (e.g. loose floor boards, railings, platforms etc). So be aware when setting up. Don't position yourself in the middle of a footpath or walk-way, make sure there is always room for someone to go around.
Below is an example of a time-lapse taken in Glacier National Park, Montana - USA. Specifically it was on the eastern side of the "Going to the Sun" road (see map below, red dot marks the spot, click to enlarge). The whole National Park is littered with totally amazing areas to photograph or set up a timelapse. But i found this one spot to be the best....If you're in the area check it out! When you see the sunlight rise over the mountain peaks during dawn and sunrise, you will find that it's a sight that is beyond words!
(Click to enlarge)
Details:
Location: Going to the Sun road, Glacier National Park (east), Montana USA (Big Sky Country)
Camera: GoPro HDHERO2
Settings: 11 mp on .5 sec interval
Time of Arrival: 5:00am
Duration of Time Lapse: 1 hour 22 minutes
Number of shots in sequence: 8813
Total size used: 16 Gigabytes
Wind condition: Strong
Temperature: 0 - 5 degrees Celsius (32 - 41 degrees Fahrenheit)
Lessons learned: Due to strong wind conditions, my tripod shifted a few times. Tremendous difficulty and frustration was encountered later while trying to fix/ reposition the photo on the computer !!!! Hence, secure your tripod with something heavy (rocks on tripod legs or bag on tripod fulcrum). Also due to the low temperatures and high wind conditions, ensure you have warm clothing or at least some sort of shelter.
