Time-Lapse Madness

Well I did it. Two cameras set up to capture the happiness and joy, fun and frivolity of the Jubilee Street Party in Market Street, Ashby.

One camera was safely locked away in an office, clicking and capturing a narrow view of about 9 tables from a first floor window; the second at street level near the pelican crossing at the Town Hall Market. The other cameras were used for various stills and mini time-lapses. I had enjoyed capturing one with the Fuji point and shoot, so I mounted it onto my new tiny tripod and got some candid shoots of peoples feet, rubbish, balloons and children having fun.

My favourite image of the day

It's hard work being a photographer!

There were occasional drizzling moments so I sent my sister off to get me a plastic bag. As long as the parts of the camera containing all the electronics were covered I didn't mind. The lens was well protected and it didn't matter if a few spots got onto the glass.

It was a lovely day. We were all putting on and taking off our coats as the sun came and went. There was a brass band, a choir, a horse and a fun fair.

Home to undertake a mammoth downloading session - approx 2800 images. The time-lapse was set to capture one image every 15 seconds and I stayed for 5 hours. Phew!

The office window view

Market Street before everyone arrived

The street level set up

The next 5 days will see me creating a movie out of these images and when I'm happy with it I'll post something here to show you.

Thanks go to Ashby Town Council who gave me permission to do this and found ways for it to work for me - Karen Edwards. Thanks to the new town mayor Geriant Jones - for his generous offers of hospitality. Thanks to Prescient Power (Karl) who let me set up a camera in his offices in amongst the Ashby Art Festival.

And of course the day would have been a lot more difficult without the help and entertainment provided by my two assistants: Marie Mayes and Bruce Crawford.

My sister trying her best to create a red, white and blue tongue!

My plan for this work is to hand it over to Ashby Town Council for their use and to the Ashby Museum. My take on a tiny piece of a lovely day.

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Exhibition Showreel

Have decided to put some of my time-lapse movies onto the Exhibition Showreel along with still images. The Showreel will run the whole week. I have a few I would be happy to show but I think they need a little tweak to make sure the story is understood. There is one that needs finishing off with some original music. I will finalise the Eden Project time-lapse and add some of the interviews captured last year with visitors and staff.

I have cleared 5 days over the next week to complete this. Really looking forward to spending time with After Effects again.

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Piano Restoration time-lapse movie

Successful capture of the piano being serviced and then the keys replaced and put back together. Had something like 2000 images to handle for this movie and the result is a 2 min movie showing just how much hard work Doug puts into looking after these keyboards for his clients.

Yesterday I go the chance to show it to people who would give me constructive criticism. I have taken on board their suggestions and ideas and I will give the movie a final polish before I post it on here - I might also add some originally composed music as well.

In the meantime here is a still from the movie and I need to get back to the software and do those final tweaks - watch this space.

www.klassickeysgb.com
Doug playing to the camera - hmmmmm

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Time-Lapse - Part Two

Tonight I am off to do a second shoot for a time-lapse movie. Yesterday I captured 1500 images of the start of a piano restoration. Tonight the keys should be going on and that will look fabulous. All appearing triumphantly.

The innards of a piano

The plan is that this restoration time-lapse movie will appear on my show-reel for selling this idea to small businesses. Once I have created the movie I will post - but for now it's off to work I go.

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Hello Star Gazers

Such a beautiful clear day bode well for a clear cloud-free night sky. What with Venus being so close to the beautiful waxing crescent moon and Jupiter below them - I thought I would set up the camera to capture a time-lapse of it all.

Initially I was hampered by a neighbour who decided to do a 59 point turn on my drive (Why? I have no idea). Finally he cleared off and I got the chance to set up and start capturing.

Here is the result - I decided to help you a little by labelling the points of interest in the sky at the end of the movie - so see what you think:

There is sound on this movie

Thoughts:

I am not too happy with the quality of the mp4s - the movies are much better when watched from the .mov file. I will investigate ways to improve things.

Got to use the new Manfrotto tripod and friction grip head - blooming marvellous. Easy to set up and easy to use and no blood on my fingers at the end. Magnificent purchase.

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Sound

Was going to spend the day editing sound. Either I am not in the mood for this or everyone is being really noisy today.

Tried Plan B - a time-lapse movie on the clouds out of my window. And guess what - I did everything wrong - wrong ISO chosen and lots of noise, under-exposed images, incorrectly focused camera, wrong f stop showing nasty sensor blobs, battery not fully charged, didn't empty memory card, used an old and rubbish lens. Glad this happened on a personal project.

Everything = wrong.
Have highlighted the sensor blobs - think the one top right might even be an insect!

OK let's take a deep breath, charge up the battery, wipe the memory card, put a nicer lens on the camera and set it up again. Nope I failed at that as well.

The alternative is to take a day off - but I have forgotten how to do that.

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Smoking

I have been researching a new technique called cinemagraph. This gives a still image the appearance of movement. My favourite image of my Uncle Pete smoking is an image I have always wanted to add smoke to. After having some brief tuition I have been able to add smoke to Uncle Pete's cigarette and here are the results:

This movie has sound.

A still from the movie:

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Venus and Jupiter in Conjunction

As the sun was setting this evening I thought I would see how Venus and Jupiter are looking. They are only about 450,000,000 miles apart which for us is quite close!

Only got a few minutes as the sky got darker until the clouds came over and they both started to twinkle and disappear. You might notice the intro and outro idents - jolly proud of those I am.

This movie contains sound

Here is a still from the movie:

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Full Moon rising

After seeing the beautiful, almost full moon, the night before I decided to set up the camera and capture images of the moon rising.

The time-lapse set-up was fairly standard once I had decided on which setting to use and off it went. I realised after about an hour and a half that the moon was either not rising in that time slot or it was very well hidden by the clouds.

What resulted was a quite unremarkable time-lapse movie of the night sky and fast moving clouds. Eerie, surreal and atmospheric.

Enjoy:

There is sound on this video

For those that are interested in the details:

• 696 images captured in this movie.
• Used the Canon 300D on a gorilla tripod.
• Camera was set to AV on f5
• I used ISO 800
• Exposure times ranged from 640th of a second to 2 seconds as the light decreased.

I took this opportunity to develop the new intro and outro for my movies. Really enjoying creating these and cant wait for my first commission.

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Excellence Awards

Have arrived at the venue for the Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Staff Excellence Awards evening. The fully repaired, tried and tested Canon 300D is set up on the tallest tripod I have got and it is happily capturing an image every 30 seconds as the room for the event transforms into the spectacle it will be.

The meet and greet area has been set up with a backdrop of 9 feet of light blue curtain which we have framed with balloons on one side and an artificial plant on the other.

Now all we need is for the room to really start changing - the balloons and table decorations are in, next the tables will be set and the star light cloth will be switched on. And then the people, 270 people will be arriving.

Should be fun.

Team work - the backdrop is tested out!

Update:

The camera kept going for 7 hours capturing approx 830 images. Fingers crossed it got the transformation and everyone arriving. Had immense fun offering portrait shots in the meet and greet area - particularly to the award winners.

So many happy smiling faces.

Had a wonderful time and thanks to the team for generously catering for us and to Alan who has helped me understand more about people management at events like this.

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Time-Lapse Calculator

Having created a few time-lapse 'films' recently I realise that I need a quick way of working out the maths connected with this process.

The number of images I need to capture to create a decent final result is worked out by knowing how long I will be capturing images for and how long and many frames per second I want the final 'film' to be.

I have set up an excel spreadsheet to help me with the maths - wonder if I could make this an iPad app? It certainly needs to be easily available when I am out and about and capturing time-lapses.

Here's my first stab at it:

Well I know what it means

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ISS again

As promised I went out again and this time captured the ISS from the top of Breedon on the Hill. Brrr it was cold. But got a much clearer view of the sky and of course being nearer to East Midlands Airport meant a few aeroplanes were captured too.

This is a very short film but watch out of ISS at 6 seconds. Don't get confused with the aeroplane trails.

There is no sound on this video.

In case you missed it here is a still from the video:

ISS approaching Jupiter

Will try again tomorrow.

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Cosmic Time-Lapse

If you are a keen watcher of the night sky you will not have failed to notice the delight of being able to see Venus and Jupiter shining brightly down on us from the South West. I discovered yesterday that the ISS (International Space Station) on its orbit will be visble to us. I have missed it so many times because of cloud cover so yesterday I was hoping that the rain would go. Not only was it going to be visble to us in UK but that it's trajectory would mean we would see it flying (seemingly) between Venus and Jupiter.

I have used what I captured to create this 25 second film. Make sure you are paying attention at approx 12 seconds and you will see ISS whizz up between the brightness of Venus and Jupiter.

There is no sound on this video

In case you miss it in the video - here is a still.

ISS just approaching Jupiter

Process:

Now that I have fixed the 300D and it has passed it's rigor tests I am back in the land of looking for ideas for capturing interesting time-lapse events. I thought this was an excellent and challenging idea. I got my act together and about an hour before the ISS was due to pass over I captured the stars out of the open lounge window. Worked wonderfully. Also tried out a few different settings with the camera to see if I could make improvements.

For the actual capture I decided to set up the camera in the window of the office. Three issues created a 'not as good as it could have been' result to this film - one: the street light opposite the house has cast an orangeness to the finished product; two: I shot through the window which is never a good idea; and three: the steam from the central heating boiler occasionally wafts across the scene slightly spoiling it.

On Reflection:

Every time I complete a time-lapse I learn so much - both with techniques to capture the images and also with the software in handling the images and producing the 'film'. Have to say I love every minute of it. Am going out again tonight as ISS is going to be visible once again around 6.45pm this time passing to the left of Venus and Jupiter. I am going to try an outdoor position (so no window and no steam) and away from orange street lights. Results will be blogged about later.

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Setting sun

Practice is the only way to succeed. So practice I shall. Set up my new toy in the office window again to capture the setting sun. Got slightly distracted by a firework display taking place at Conkers and in the final frames you might be able to see the smoke from the fireworks drift across the sunset. 

There is sound on this video

Now that I am getting to grips with all the new gadgets I am beginning to get itchy fingers for trying out some new techniques.

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Pimped my time-lapse

I was very pleased and proud of the time-lapse PhotoFilm I created yesterday but felt it needed a little bit of fairy dust, and more importantly, a bit of music to help it along. I have spent the afternoon slightly reworking it and adding a part of Shpongle to it.

Enjoy:

This video has sound

I have been improving my skills on fading and making those look more pleasing to the eye. I am also finding my style with the title sequences. I used this piece of music as it was all I could find online that was free to download. However I have just discovered I have access, from this computer, to my whole iTunes library. And let me tell you that library is maaahhhuuuussive. I can safely say that each and every film I produce will now have a music track - at the very least. The plan of course is to do some interviews but for now I shall use music.

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Time-lapse success

Well I'm no Kubrick - but boy am I learning lots from using my new toy and creating these PhotoFilms. The best way to learn is to make mistakes and I am doing that with gusto! As I begin to learn how the software works I am exploring and experimenting with other features. Confidence grows as techniques develop. But I do know I will be back to see Red Door Studios for some specialist guidance at some point soon.

After yesterday's breaking camera and spending 4.5 hours getting 550+ images into shape I have produced the following time-lapse experiment and presented it this morning at my weekly Network meeting. 

There is no sound on this video.

I have finally got to the bottom of how to convert the .mov files to .mp4 files so that I can get them onto my iPad and show them off - to anyone that will watch!

I find creating these so exciting along with learning new techniques. As my skills improve and my curiosity to find out what else I can do with the software increases my ideas on how and what to photograph/film/capture will improve.

Need to start capturing sound and incorporate that - I have many projects ideas that will benefit from a story being told.

The facts and figures:
552 images captured over 77 mins. An image captured every 10 seconds.
At 30 frames per second the 552 images were reduced to the 18 seconds you see.

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Experimentation

Time-lapse experiment begins. Last night it all started but went a little wrong. The transmitter needed a new battery - I couldn't even get started.

Finally the Transmitter is working

I have now had chance to watch some of the online tutorials on how to use this baby. The best is here. I have programmed it successfully. No to get started with pointing my camera at something - the only place that is sturdy, that I can keep an eye on it and there is an activity is out of the office window. (Clouds slowly rolling over and occassional cars/people in the street - ooo and rain).

300D observing the world

These first set-ups will be about getting to grips with the settings and trouble shooting any problems - I do not intend to capture anything stunning or outstanding. I'm typing away and I can hear it clicking and capturing an image every 3 seconds. With something like clouds I think fast shutter speeds are fine but I think if I want to capture set-ups with many people moving about I will need to adjust the settings to get something the Americans call 'Drag'. This means a longer shutter speed so that you capture some motion blur on those things in your image that are moving. The results are much more pleasing and help give the piece some context.

The approaching storm

It's about to start raining and the drops are falling onto the window in front of the camera - that will look good (or annoying) on the finished piece - cant wait to find out!

The practical stuff:

I need to find out the maximum extent of three of the items in this set-up. How quickly will the memory card fill up? How long will the Transmitter battery last (it is working the whole time communicating with the camera). How long will the camera battery last?

I have been watching some other people's attempts at time-lapse photography on Vimeo - some of which are stunning. Some of the guys have set up their cameras on Dollys which move slightly at intervals as the shoot progresses. In the finished 'movie' this appears smooth and very interesting. I found it a bit disorientating and it brought on feelings of seasickness. But what stunning captures they achieved. I have a lot to aspire to and techniques to learn. 

Right let's see how the camera is doing and see if I can make a movie out of this rain cloud!

Think I may have found the endurance level of the Canon 300D - seems it has an issue with the mirror. Better get onto internet and find out how to fix it.

Hmm not something I can fix - it appears a plastic pin on the mirror has failed and needs creative intervention. I might know a man that can. Am now using the 5D. 

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Teeside Adventure

My Teeside adventure will include photographs but they wont be uploaded until Tuesday. You will have words only until then.

Have arrived in Saltburn on a clear and frosty night. The evidence, in this delightful and very comfortable guest house, is that there is a pier so that will be photographed tomorrow. For tonight I am going for a walk to the front to listen to the sea and perhaps set up camera for time lapse capture on the stars. I have been investigating buying an 'Intervalometer' if I'm going to do more time lapse projects, but for tonight I will be using the camera's self timer and my tripod to avoid any camera shake. I will find an off-license on the way back for a wee dram to warm me up.

Star to the left above the tree line - Sirius and on the right - Mirzam.

Time lapse on stars captured - most likely Sirius and Mirzam (left of Orion) moving across a line of trees. Realised as I left, after 20 mins of captures, that I was on private property and standing on someones roof! Whoops. Didn't stray too far as I couldn't really see what was where, I could hear the ocean and knew there was a cliff somewhere! Got a bottle of Merlot on the walk back past the end-of-the-line railway station. Saltburn is a lovely town. Looking forward to Roseberry Topping tomorrow.

Saturday:

The sun is coming up but I think I'll stay in bed. Here's the view out of my bedroom window over the roofs on the other side of the street.

Sunrise over roofs on Leven Street, Saltburn

Had an hour between breakfast and being picked up so I went to the beach and watched the surfers. Please bear in mind that there was frost and ice around. These surfers are made of hardy stuff. Was enchanted by the beach and the pier and the Huntcliff headland. Would love to come back here for a longer stay. Captured some lovely images. Landlady told me about the active and inspiring artist community that Saltburn has. Only slightly jealous.

Saltburn Pier

A rather arduous climb to the top of Roseberry Topping. Knees complaining but stunning views to compensate and much fun was had by all. The walk down was much easier and the lunch in the local pub was a welcome reward.

Jumping for joy at reaching the top

Party at New Marske Sports Club was tremendous fun and people really went to a lot of trouble dressing up, felt quite guilty not making any effort - but it wasn't compulsory. Live band were brilliant - The Fallen - they really got involved in the party and encouraged all those dressed as Slash or Kiss to air guitar along with them. Those of us that were single all had a bit of a crush! Big mention has to go to Lavendar Cakes who provided the most spectacular cake. Follow the link and see if you can find an image of Rebecca's cake - best up-to-date images of cakes can be seen by liking Lavendar Cakes on Facebook.

Sunday:

Into Whitby for about 10.30 and captured some images and sound that I will be using for a PhotoFilm. Also had a play with the tilt and shift lens. Got extremely cold - think it was somewhere around minus 3 overnight and reached a balmy 3 during the day! brrrrr

Tilt and Shift madness

Took about three and half hours to get home. Had to stop for a snooze at Woolley Edge services and slept for about ten mins whilst listening to Lord Peter Whimsy. Just what I needed to get me home safely.

I cant praise the B&B I stayed in enough. During the last twelve months I have stayed at two B&Bs that I would rate very highly. But with this one I am planning to go back - there is so much potential to photograph around Saltburn I cant let that slip by. (Plus .... Ssssshhhh I have been given a voucher - which makes it even more attractive).

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Transitions and Tilley and Tea

What a great afternoon. I spent it entirely in the company of creative people. How my life has changed.

I am particularly grateful to Tilley at Red Door Studio who, whilst very kindly keeping me topped up with cups of tea, gave me a few hints and tips on After Effects. This is the software I am using to create my PhotoFilms. Thankfully Tilley loves After Effects and uses it for her animations and so was very excited to share her knowledge with me. I now know where to turn for any advice and guidance I will need getting to grips with these new skills as I develop my ideas.

After a quick lesson showing me how transitions and easy ease would improve my 'Clouds' PhotoFilm I have re-worked and remade it using cross fade transitions between the images - to soften the look and the finishing touch using easy ease to fade into the final frame. 

Well that was my intention - I am not entirely sure I have done it right but it looks how I imagined it would. Tilley is going to have a look in the morning and show me where I have gone wrong!

I truly love my life and the fact that I have found all these positively inspiring and creative people just about tops it all.

Happiness

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AE - First Attempt

PhotoFilm

This wont look like much and it did take me 3.5 hours to create this movie but I have, finally, mastered the technique to make my first 20 second 'PhotoFilm'. Was given some top tips today on how to make After Effects do what I wanted. I have put them all into action and made my first PhotoFilm this evening.

I have many projects I want to do that involve using this technique so I will continue practising and learning more about the software.

Here's a screen grab of the beast when I was just about to render it:

This actually looks incredibly neat - it was much more chaotic then it looks!

I need to learn how to get it onto my Vimeo account so that I can create a link so you will be able to watch them as I create them - but for now I am off to sleep and give my eyes a rest. Great sense of achievement from doing this.

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