Small walks, great benefits

Are you like me that you sometimes find yourself sitting at home, thinking that it was a while since you’ve been out making photos? Perhaps surfing the internet, your library, watching tutorials and reviews? to the point perhaps that your creative juices are ebbing away.

And it’s so easy to do and justify to yourself: the weather is crap; it’s already too late (sun’s up); it’s too early (sun’s up); where do I go that is new, exiting, etc etc. Now is a god time to break the spell like I did on this day. I think it was a Friday, worked from home that day, got the job done and grabbed my camera bag and left the house for a short photo walk toward sunset time.

Sitting comfortably inside, snacking; it’s hard to go outside [Fuji X-T3, XF 16mm, f/1.4, 1/200, ISO 160]

Mother and daugther [Fuji X-T3, XF 16mm, f/2.8, 1/3000s, ISO 160]

I’m lucky to live nearby the sea, I am. But there are so many days that I don’t realise that. And so many people here that don’t. And I bet you that you live nearby something that is interesting, or perhaps nearby where you work or pass by. The nearby or familiar location can still be great for a walk and your hobby. In fact, it is probably the place where you will make your best photos. Because you know the place well, you’ve scouted it, you feel it, know what to look for. And you can try many times too!

I have mixed emotions about it too, I admit. The landscape explorer in me wants to go out on an adventure, see something new, perhaps sportively or logistically challenging even (see my next post on my trip to Scotland last month..). The Buddha in me tells me that I will just waste 80% of my time doing that, and then eventually see what is already ‘here’ once I’m calmed down.

So I walked the beach, captured some people walking along th waterline like myself, and just kept walking and hanging around until the sun started to set. I never know what t will bring, but having some high leel clouds in the sky looked promising. They allow the sun to set below them and shine its light from below, making them glow. I set my tripod, mounted the X-T1 with the 14mm lens, and shot everything manual through the LCD and with a 2 sec timer delay. What I think helped was that I kept moving my tripod around, putting it lower and lower and got into the water where needed, just focussing on the image in my LCD display. A special moment I can now share with you.

Field of Potential | Washed on the beach the water can’t stay there and is drawn back. The foam makes shapes as if particles in a field of potential gloing from positive to negative. The true source of energy looms behind. [Fuji X-T1, XF 14mm, f/18, 1/2s, ISO 200]

Form of the Sword | Like a liquid sword the small water waves cut through the sheet of water. [Fuji X-T1, XF 14mm, f/14, 1/3s, ISO 200] 

When the ocean sang in Hymns | Soft not loud. I hear you better. [Fuji X-T1, XF 14mm, f/18, 1/2s, ISO 200]

[Fuji X-T1, XF 14mm, f/14, 1/5s, ISO 200] 

Time lapse - Scheveningen Pier

Let’s share a timelapse I made last month and how I did it.

What I like about Time lapse

Time lapse is something that I am still experimenting with. What I like about it is that adds a touch of movement and ‘passage of time’ to an otherwise still scene. At least that it how I like to look at them and prefer them. Whereas a video is at normal speed of life and still is frozen, this one sits magically iin the middle and gives you the idea that you are a special, almst devine observer.

That and the fact that it can make the sky in a landscape photo - one of my favorite subjects at the moment -  to life without it becoming a movie: jut passage of time... and clouds!

I used the following gear and settings for this simple 2x30 second stitched time lapse:

• Fuji X-T1 camera with XF 18-135mm lens
• A small table-top tripod (Matin MS220) 
• Circular Polariser filter (B+W)
• Using time interval setting in the camera at 1 sec interval and just below 400 frames for each sequence. that means some 5 minutes per scene into a 15 second video, then slowed each video down by factor 2 and stitched them together in post.  
• RAW file format (!)
• Framed at 38mm (25mm on my cropped XF lens). Exposure was manual at f/11, 1/180 sec, 200 ISO. IOS image stabilisation was off (tripod..).
• Post in LRTimelapse program (deeloped by Gunther Wegner) to batch edit the sequence in Lightroom and render the video. Then I added music via iMovie.

The result

The good:

•  Mini tripod and single ‘travel’ lens make an ideal portable rig for time lapse anywhere.
• RAW editing, exposure transitioning and deflickering in LRTimelapse / Lightroom is really good generating 'still-like quality' to the movie.
• Hey, I got some movement in my frame with a sense of passage of time around this fixed landmark in my town.  

The bad:

•  Total time lapsed was rather short, next time I want to extend it for more cloud movement, to say 30 - 60 mins.
• Cloud movement not silk smooth, next time I will try to reduce the shutter speed to say 1/15 - 1 sec using my ND 10 stop filter.
• This bloody dog on the beach (or should I say dog-owners)! It came from behind an ran right over my rig during time lapsing, throwing my camera/lens smack in the sand! Calm down Remco, and careful cleaning...:-( I got it clean in the end, but don’t wish this to happen to anyone so be warned.
• So I still have miles to go in this genre, bt am already enoying it! Feel free to leave any comments and I hope to post one again soon (pssst: please give me an idea for subject in these darkest of winter days when there is no snow only rain...).

Useful links:

lrtimelapse.com

The mini time lapse rig

STORM IN DE STATENLAAN

During my visit to The Hague last week I was telling everyone in the office what a great place this is in the summer. There's no place better. The weather was nice all week as we could see through the office windows. Then finally, it is weekend and this happens: strongest July storm since recordable history!  

This week the summer weather is only for those who have holiday. If you are still working, forget it. The weekend will be miserable. As miserable as ever recorded. We managed to weather the storm in our favorite chinese restaurant in the Netherlands in the Fred. Watching passer-by's risk their live on the street while slurping a freshly made wonton soup and equisite dim sum. This cook should get a Michelin-star! 

After an espresso in the Paagman bookstore I ventured out into the street, walking toward the harbor, and captured the changed street sight with my X-T1 camera using a 14mm wide angle lens (21mm in 35film-equivalent) .