There is nothing quite like the the palette of color nature displays prior to the sun rising above the horizon. Pre-sunrise color can be quite spectacular; as was the case this morning.
Don’t forget to look all around before the sun comes up and the vivid color is gone.
iPhone pano
Once the sun broke the horizon the pinks/reds disappeared; the blue and yellow became more defined.
Post-sunrise.
A constant stream of ducks doing flybys pre-sunrise; if you look close enough you can see them in one of the shots. There were lots of geese honking. A single pair a swans swam close by. Two eagles chattered on and on in a nearby Cottonwood Tree. What a great morning and start to the day.
There was no sunshine at sunrise this a.m. I did catch a little bit of sun two hours after sunrise when it began to filter through the heavy fog and clouds.
Bay City is a village on the Mississippi River in Pierce County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 500 at the 2010 census. It is one of my favorite places to shoot a sunrise. It’s close proximity to Red Wing makes it an easy distance to travel. This isn’t such a big deal in the Winter when sunrise is 7:30 a.m. In the Spring and Summer months, though, sunrise is closer to to 5:30 a.m.
I made the trip to this very spot yesterday a.m. and it was less than colorful.
iPhone photo
That morning was more suited for photographing the hoar frost.
iPhone photo
This morning was a completely different.
It was a chilly morning, but it wasn’t too bad at 19 degrees. Always a good time with nature, cameras and friends.
December 5th, 2015 – 37 degrees @ 7:00 a.m. (sunrise @ 7:30 a.m.). It would go on to reach 49 degrees as they day progressed; sure beats 20 below. I setup in a familiar place; a favorite site any time of the year for a sunrise. I employed a 3-camera setup this morning as illustrated in the first image below. I moved camera 3 to three more different vantage points. I used footage from only two of four positions that camera 3 occupied. It is challenging enough to get the exposure correct on one camera as it gets lighter out; 3 different cameras had me running a bit. The more I dabble with time-lapse the deeper its hooks get into me. It is challenging.
From L to R – Camera 3, 2 & 1
Camera 3 moved for wave view
Here are a few single-frame shots from the time-lapse sequences.
Camera #1 View
Camera #2 View
Camera #2 View
Camera #3 View
Camera #3 moved from tree to waves – quick snap in-between
Camera #3 View
You can view more of my time-lapse projects via my blog or my youtube channel.
The end product of this time-lapse shoot is below. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I did creating it.
It’s been a while since I have dabbled with time-lapse photography. I had some time the other day and decided to give it another whirl. It was a picture perfect morning for a sunrise. The clouds were a bit thick, but that ended up to be a great feature. The sun rose through the clouds during the whole shoot. The sun rays danced on endlessly through the early morning.
Shooting time-lapse is a significant investment of time – or at least I think so. I brought along a book to pass the time. The three sequence were shot between 6:58 a.m. – 9:04 a.m. on 2015-11-11 in Bay City, WI.
I planned on capturing slightly different views and mashing them up together afterword. As it were, the intervalometer on camera 2 was only set for 90 frames (instead of 999). Live and learn; check every single setting twice. Set white balance. Compose and focus; then switch to manual focus so lens doesn’t attempt to focus for each frame. Manual mode for exposure. Check those setting twice to be sure. It is rather disappointing when you spend a few hours capturing time-lapse only to hundreds of unusable frames. I started shoot these sequences at ISO 200, 18mm; I did however make some adjustments along the way. I started at F/11 @ 1/40 sec and end up at F/14 @ 1/640 sec. The changes where gradual with several frames between changes.
I took this learning opportunity to move and setup with a dramatically different angle of view. There was a nice-sized bit of drift wood on he beach that created an interesting foreground. I’ve only used my new Manffroto PIXI Table Top Tripod a few times; this is exactly what I envisioned using it for.
I ended up with two shorter segments and one longer one – longer being completely relative here as the final product is only 57 seconds long. The time-lapse sequences were produced in VideoVelocity 3 by Candy Labs. The sequences were mashed up together in Windows Movie Maker.
The final product is below with music added by Kai Engle – With Redemption.
In the US, Canada, and Central and South America, a rare Total Lunar Eclipse of a Supermoon took place the evening of September 27, 2015. This event will not happen for another 33 years. Fortunately it was visible near the Minnesota/Wisconsin boarder in a small Mississippi River town of Bay City, WI where my wife and I along with our friend Linnae photographed it. Here are a few shots.
Here is a crude time lapse leading up to the full eclipse.
32 degrees on a January morning is always welcomed to me. It is also an invitation to get out and shoot a sunrise. Winter vs. Summer sunrises are a toss-up for me. One plus to Winter sunrises is they happen later. I am not opposed to getting up early, but 6 a.m. is always seems easier than 4 a.m.
Cyndie and I initially planned on shooting at a favorite spot in Lake City, MN – a quick 20 minute drive from where we live in Red Wing, MN. We arrived at the point (off of Chestnut St) and just down from Ohuta Park. We made good time and had plenty of time to spare. Giving ourselves plenty of time was a good plan as there were minimal ice heaves present off the point. There certainly were not enough to fill in the foreground of a photo.
Like any plan, it is good to have a backup. We back-tracked to the boat landing in Old Frontenac on Lake St. I had stopped there on MLK day while driving around Lake Pepin after shooting the sunrise. I noticed some ice fishing houses on the lake; I thought they where closer to the landing. I was envisioning them as a nice foreground for the sunrise shoot. Upon arrival the parking lot was already full and folks where lining up on the ice to park. The ice fishing houses where out further from shore; not in an ideal position unfortunately.
MLK Day 2015 Sunrise
If you were thoughtful enough to have a back up plan, chances are you have yet another idea if the first and second option doesn’t pan out. We still had plenty of time and decided to head back to Red Wing and then across the river into Wisconsin and to a favorite sunrise spot in Bay City. This place works well any time of the year; with its close proximity to Red Wing, it is easy to reach if in a hurry. The springs along the shore leave open water throughout the winter. The open water affords local Mallards a quiet resting place as well as enable beautiful cloud reflections.
I shot the sunrise in three different sequences. I have not shot any time lapse in a while, but felt inclined to do so because he the clouds were pretty epic this morning with nice gradual movement. I wish I would have set up different cameras in the three locations and captured longer amount of time.
First sunrise sequence time lapse
Here is a single frame I selected from the sequence of shots to post process.
Second sunrise sequence time lapse
Here is a single frame I selected from the sequence of shots to post process.
Third sunrise sequence time lapse
Here is a single frame I selected from the sequence of shots to post process.
Here are some other shots from the morning.
And finally, some shots from the iPhone. You need another camera to keep yourself occupied when shooting time lapse – you have some time on your hands.
