I made a quick fun video immitating Michael Shainblum’s “Mirror City”
For this Time Lapse edition I went out to Davis, Santa Cruz, and Coyote Camera. I finally solved the battery problem, which is buy more Anker 10,000 mAh batteries. I also finished Superman: Secret Origin during this trek. Here’s the actual video for this week:
Shot 1
This was actually two shots blended together. Unfortunately the clouds came in within an hour that I set the camera to fire. The rush of clouds is really cool though. I had my Bower 24mm f/1.4 for this shot. Wanted to try a different lens on my 5D mkii.
Shot 2 & 3
For this day, we drove from the mountains near Milpitas to Manresa state beach. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a good place for a night time lapse. The mountains were too dangerous to set up (no where to park car safely over night). And Manresa (Santa Cruz area) was too cloudy. Instead we went to the Santa Cruz Beach boardwalk to get the rides moving. I recently saw a Disneyland time lapse, and I thought maybe it’d be cool to do the same for the Boardwalk. We thought it would be hard to slip into the park with bags, but I guess we were lucky.
Shot 2 is a simple BTS. We used a 7D and 11mm-16mm f/2.8 for this show. We forgot to bring an extra tripod, so we propped it up using a Pelican case.
Shot 3 we used 50mm f/1.4. We set it to f/16. We had a slight movement left.
Shot 4
I was actually board last night, and I saw that clouds were coming in. Unfortunately the clouds came sooner than the weather forecast reported. I used a 14mm for this shot with the 5D mkii.
Shot 5 & 6
Both of these shots were at Davis in the arboretum. MC and AA came with me, and we all took a nap. Prior to this shoot I was able to connect my Konova slider with the mx2 controller so it could run an SMS mode. It was a very easy process. I simply snipped the cables, connected the proper lines, and taped them together (though it’s best to solder them).
MX2 + Konova Moter
Shot 5 was taken at one end of the small lake. I set it to .40 per movement, but even this was too slow to complete the slider. I used the 7D with a 11mm-16mm, and let it go.
Checking a shot before setting out for the next location.
Shot 6 was actually on an incline into the water. I found some heavy rocks and put them in a camera bag to hold the dolly in place. As for the pier, I actually brought an LED light and jumped across to accent it (otherwise, it would be nonexistent in the shot).
Though both turned out great, I noticed that the Emotimo tells the dolly to move right when the shot is being fired. Though fine for faster shutter speed shots, it wasn’t exactly ideal for longer exposures. You can see a tinge of blur in shot 6, but I think it kind of adds to the image. This trip was especially fun since I had been wanting to visit my old college town for a while. It was fantastic to go during a no moon, and take advantage of a comfortable, low noise polluted area.
Shot 7, 8, & 9
These were shot during the Perseid Meteor shower. Unfortunately I didn’t catch any meteors on camera. We made the trek to Coyote, California, which is literally 5 minutes away from the southern most part of San Jose. AA kept me company during this shoot, and oddly enough a few teenagers came by the area in the wee hours of the morning (a group even ventured into the mountain).
For shot 7, I had the 7D on the Konova slider with a 24mm. I especially liked this composition because of the framing. With the other two shots, I had some issues with condensation. However the 7D didn’t have that issue at all.
For shot 8, I decided to boost ISO higher than I usually do. I don’t necessarily like getting many stars because of the noise element added to the image. However, I did want to catch a better Milky Way shot. This was shot on the 60D with the 11mm-16mm, at an ISO of 1250. This shot was a little hard to frame because I wasn’t satisfied with any foreground elements. Though I got 450 frames of this shot, less than 300 frames, I found condensation on my lens. I thought I was very gentle about wiping it, but it moved the camera, and ruined the sequence (not that the dew didn’t already).
Shot 9 consisted of the 5D with a 14mm. I simply pull the shot with the Dynamic Perception Dolly. I actually had the Emotimo on the dolly, but I didn’t have the motor with me for solely the dolly. Like shot 8, I had dew build up on the lens as well.
While surfing the web, I came across some anti fog wipes, and some plastic bags for DSLRs, which I plan to get soon. Also, I read that hand warmers are recommended for this problem as well.
The last 2 weeks of shooting was incredibly fun. However, I am taking a break from treks so that I can work on a few videos and update my reel as well as job search. Also, I’m thinking about releasing these videos every month instead of bimonthly. But then again, I really do like sharing everything as fast as I can.
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