Timelapses, Panoramas and Me

Over the past few weeks I've been busy editing the footage I've shot with my 550D. It's taken longer than I'd planned, but that's largely due to my underestimates regarding the time involved required to create a short film that's actually worth watching. The internet and my (not so) good friend procrastination have not helped me stay on schedule. So now I've dedicated a secondary computer just for checking emails and surfing the internet which has helped me stay focused on my editing that takes place on my primary machine.

Over the last few weeks I've taken some more timelapses. The thing I love about timelapses is that they allow you to capture a long period of time that can be played back in a short amount of time. You get to see all the things that aren't able to be perceived while they take place at their natural speed. But when these things are sped up you can see all of the changes that take place over hours and hours, during only a few minutes - it's great!

Today it rained quite heavily, and I could see towards the end of the downpour there was a host of assorted clouds that all looked very interesting, and it just so happened that the sun was going down in a couple of hours. I could already see the way the sunlight was catching the clouds that we were in for a great sunset. So I got my gear together and headed down to the ocean. It was still raining lightly as I pulled into the oceanside car park. Getting out of my car I could see a large dark raincloud above the ocean which was covering the vast majority of the sky. It seemed I'd been fooled by the interesting clouds earlier and now all I had to look at was a flat grey sky. I could still see some interesting clouds way out on the horizon, so I decided to set up my camera anyway. I found a small lookout that offered my camera and I some light protection from the impending rain. As I recently purchased a Gorillapod I was able to attach my camera to the supports of the shelter which provided me with a great vantage point of the ocean and the glowing horizon line. The wind was getting stronger, and the rain was heavier now. I attached my intervalometer and started the timelapse.

With the camera doing its thing I was free to check out the sky and ocean with my own eyes. The clouds were now far more interesting than before and the expansive ocean was just too lovely to be photographed with only one camera. I pulled out my iPhone and took a snap of my camera and the distant sunlight:

I still didn't feel that this single photo captured the awesome expanse of the ocean and the sky above. I thought, 'wouldn't it be great if I was able to take multiple photos and put them together as if they were one?' What are those things called again...panamas?...Pajamas?... Panoramas! Yes! ...But how could I take a panorama with just my iPhone? Then I remembered Deceptikong had an app for that exact thing. I double checked and it was the Autostitch app which generated panoramas out of a series of photos taken by the iPhone. By this time the sun had emerged from the clouds and was starting to light up the sky. I quickly bought the app using my iPhone and then used it to create my first ever panorama - it was fantastic!

After the sunset, the wind got even stronger and started shaking my camera like crazy. I managed to damp the shaking by wedging the neckstrap between the camera and the support pole of the shelter. Then after a few minutes my second memory card ran out of space - it was time to pack up.

It felt great to take a chance on the weather and come home at the end of all that with a pretty decent timelapse and some nice panoramas. I won't be forgetting that lookout anytime soon.