time lapse
videos
Milky way rising
This was my first proper night sky time lapse taken 4 years ago while I was helping out at my mother in laws place in Eardisley, Hereford. It was taken with a Canon 80D and Sigma 10-20mm f4 lens. As I was staying at the house there was no need for me to stay outside all night.
perseid meteor shower
This was also taken at the same house in Eardisley, Hereford. Often, meteor showers are hyped up in the media and press, in reality they can be very disappointing. This was taken with the Canon 80D and Sigma 10-20mm f4
milky way at drovers wood
This was my first time lapse where I actually spent all night “out in the wilds”, it was actually 2 miles from where I lived at the time. I spent the entire evening sitting on a stile which wasn’t particularly comfortable. This was taken with the Canon 80D and Sigma 10-20mm f4
Grwyne Fawr reservoir
This has to be the coldest night that I’ve spent out doing time lapse, it was about -25c with the wind chill. I spent much of the evening lying on an inflatable bed roll. Thanks to my down suit I was nice and warm. It was also my first outing with my Sony A7Sii and Tamron 15-30mm f2.8, I also used a Rhino Camera Gear slider for the motion. A good friend of mine dropped me off and it was a tough trek for 3 miles up a stony path to the top of the dam, I was picked up the following morning complete with a nice warm bacon sandwich!
Malvern Hills Boxing day
This was Boxing Day 2016 up on top of British Camp in the Malvern Hills, Herefordshire, it was another frosty night but clear skies made up for it. This was taken with the Sony A7Sii, Tamron 15-30mm f2.8 and Rhino Camera Gear slider.
milky way eardisley
Another trip to Eardisley so no need for thermal clothing. This was taken with the Sony A7Sii and Samyang 12mm f2.8
great oak house milky way
Using the house at Eardisley as a backdrop. Using the camera slider gives the impression that the camera is tracking the milky way. By tilting the camera up slightly the distortion caused by the 12mm lens gives a curved perspective to the horizon
milky way hergest ridge
This was taken at the top of Hergest Ridge in Kington, Herefordshire. My brother gave me a lift to the end of a lane then it was a couple of miles uphill trek to get to the area where I was shooting from. This was taken with the Sony A7Sii, Samyang 12mm f2.8 and Rhino Camera Gear slider
hergest ridge clouds
This was taken at the top of Hergest Ridge in Kington, Herefordshire among the monkey puzzle trees that are there. Normally, clouds are considered a nuisance for astrophotography but sometimes when doing time lapse they can add a bit of drama to the end results as was the case here. This was taken with the Sony A7Sii, Samyang 12mm f2.8 and Rhino Camera Gear Slider
grwyne fawr revisited
This was a return trip to the reservoir but it was a bit warmer and I used a different view of the reservoir. A mixture of clouds and contrails added a bit of extra colour and I also walked across the dam with my red head torch light on. This was taken with the Sony A7Sii, Samyang 12mm f2.8 and Rhino Camera Gear slider
hergest ridge revisited
Another trip to Hergest Ridge, this time I wanted to catch some moving shadows caused by the moon behind the monkey puzzle trees and also show the distinction between moonlit sky and after it had set. This was taken with the Sony A7Sii, Samyang 12mm f2.8 and Rhino Camera Gear slider
hergest ridge reflections
This was my last time lapse trip in Herefordshire before we moved up to Harrogate in 2017. There were some well placed puddles so I used them to catch some reflections of the stars and milky way which worked quite well. The orange/yellow glow in the second clip is from light pollution in Kington and Leominster. This was taken with the Sony A7Sii, Samyang 12mm f2.8 and Rhino Camera Gear slider
nidd gorge at night
This was my first time lapse trip since moving to Harrogate, this was taken over two separate nights at different ends of Nidd Gorge about 2 miles from where I live. The first part is by the weir at Scotton Mill and the second part is by Nidd Gorge Viaduct. These were taken with the Sony A7Sii, Samyang 12mm f2.8 and Tamron 15-30mm f2.8 and Syrp Genie panning head
orion over Railway viaduct
This was taken from the top of the Nidd Gorge Viaduct looking down into the gorge and also along the cycle path that goes across the viaduct now. This was taken with the Sony A7Sii, Samyang 12mm f2.8 and Rhino Camera Gear slider
first trip to Ribblehead
This was my first outing to Ribblehead Viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales which is now my favourite place for time lapse, it is a 3 hour trip by train to get there and then a mile hike but it is worth it. This was in August 2018 and there was only a few hours of darkness so the clip was going to be short so I supplemented it with some drone footage which I had recently bought. This was taken with the Sony A7Sii, Samyang 12mm f2.8 and Mavic Air drone. I also met up with a young couple, Ben and Sinead with their dog Casper and we spent a good couple of hours chatting
"holy grail" at ribblehead
A “Holy Grail” time lapse is a time lapse that runs from day into night and then back to day again. It can be quite complicated due to the amount of exposure changes needed and processing it into a smooth result. This was my first attempt at using two new pieces of equipment, ie the Dynamic Perceptions Stage One slider with Sapphire Pro pan and tilt head and the Timelapse+ view “Holy Grail” intervalometer. After previously checking out a video on line I got it set up and let it run. The Timelapse+ view has the ability to control the exposure changes in the camera and also the cameras movement via the slider. I used the Sony A7Sii and Samyang 24mm f1.4
"Holy grail" at brimham rocks
This is another “Holy Grail” time lapse taken at Brimham Rocks which is a NT site about 10 miles from where I live. I did make the mistake of accidentally tripping up on one of the tripod legs causing a slight movement in the time lapse sequence. This was taken with the Sony A7Sii, Samyang 24mm f1.4, Timelapse+ view and Dynamic Perception slider and pan and tilt head, drone footage from Mavic Air drone
"holy grail" at fewston reservoir
This was at Fewston Reservoir which is about 10 miles from where I live, it was a very cold damp night and by the morning there was half an inch of frost on my hiking trailer holdall. This was also my first outing with my Sony A7iii so I was shooting the “Holy Grail” time lapse with the A7Sii and Samyang 24mm f1.4 with the camera slider while shooting separate clips with the A7iii and Samyang 12mm f2.8, drone footage was with the Mavic Air drone
a night under the arches
The forecast was for clear skies from 7pm and I arranged to get to Ribblehead at 5:30pm. By the time I got there it was completely clouded out but very windy so I got everything set up and sure enough at 6:30pm the clouds all disappeared so I shot several clips with the Sony A7Sii and Samyang 12mm f2.8 and Sony A7ii and Samyang 24mm f1.4 using the same data to create some animated star trails
"holy grail" and crystal ball!
This was taken at an old ruined hunting lodge at Gayle Beck which is about a 3 mile walk from Ribblehead Viaduct. I was shooting a “Holy Grail” time lapse with the Sony A7Sii and Samyang 24mm f1.4 and Timelapse+ view with the Sapphire Pro pan and tilt head while I was shooting separate clips with the Sony A7iii and Samyang 12mm and also experimenting with a lens ball. Some people from one of the Facebook groups that I belong to came up for a chat while I was there
"holy grail" at thornwick bay
This was taken at Thornwick Bay at Flamborough on the North Yorkshire coast. I was shooting the “Holy Grail” time lapse with the Sony A7Sii and Samyang 24mm f1.4 with Timelapse+ view and another clip with the Sony A7iii and Samyang 12mm f2.8, the moon came up and literally made it look like daytime in the final result
3 years time lapse + speedy recap!
This is a collection of my time lapse clips so far with a speedy reverse clip at the end
fireworks at swinsty reservoir!
Swinsty reservoir is a reservoir that is next to Fewston reservoir that I did a previous trip to. I was shooting two clips with each camera so I used the Sony A7Sii and 24mm f1.4 and Sony A7iii and Samyang 12mm f2.8, just after midnight a car pulled up on the road about a mile away and some people got out and started letting off some big fireworks, it was a strange place to do it but the results added a bit of something unusual to one of the clips so I didn’t mind
Nightscapes at ribblehead
Another trip to my favourite haunt shooting some “standard” time lapse clips with the Sony A7Sii with Samyang 24mm f1.4 and Sony A7iii with Samyang 12mm f2.8 There was another person there for about an hour taking pictures of the milky way but from the looks of it he was badly prepared, he had no dew heater so he had to keep wiping his lens every five minutes, also when he was changing his settings he kept putting his phone torch on to check what he was doing (let’s hope he doesn’t do that if he goes to a star party as he won’t be very popular!)
a decade of astrophotography
Prior to doing time lapse I used to do deep sky photography with a telescope and specialist cameras. I had been working on a project to cover the last 10 years of my astroimaging and time lapse so I used a combination of Photoshop and Premier Pro to incorporate my deep sky images into my time lapse work. Here is the result in this 27 minute video
Comet neowise extra footage
I went back to the same field as last week to shoot some more of Comet NEOWISE as I heard it was starting to fade, I was very lucky I did as the Noctilucent Cloud display was much brighter than last week. I have combined the data from last night with that of last week
swinsty reservoir time lapse trip
On Tuesday afternoon (15th June) I packed up my gear on my trailer and cycled out to Swinsty Reservoir to shoot some more time lapse. As before I have included footage with my Insta360 One X2 camera of the journey there and back. It was another hard ride out in the afternoon due to the heat and the hills but much more pleasant the following morning
Knabs Ridge Time lapse trip
On Friday March 25th I cycled up to Knabs Ridge wind farm on my ICE Adventure HD and Benpacker trailer. I wanted to incorporate some motion in the time lapse from the wind turbines rotating. I shot 3 time lapse sequences including one with my Insta360 One X2 camera. I had to shoot the sequences from the lay by as the site had a “quadruple padlocked” gate blocking access
Time lapse trip to norwood lane with members from harrogate photographic society
Earlier this year I did a presentation on astrophotography and night sky time lapse to the Harrogate Photographic Society which was very well received. A few of the members were very interested when I said I would happy to show them how I do it so after keeping an eye out for suitable weather and moon phase a trip was organised on October 14th 2023 to the top of Norwood Lane just a few miles outside Harrogate. Originally only one, Richard Clark was planning on staying the whole night while Robert Maddison was only planning on staying part of the night, Mike Morley wasn’t sure if he could make it but would let me know on the day. In the end Mike came up to see what it was all about and stayed until 2am while both Richard and Robert stayed the whole night until we started packing up just before 6am so it was quite a successful evening. The clips are from my cameras as I will be showing the processing workflow to the others at a later date. There is some footage from my ride up to the location on my ICE Adventure HD recumbent trike and Benpacker trailer (my transport for my trips) taken with an Insta360 one RS camera including some special effects! I also shot some 360 time lapse footage with the same camera as well as with my Sony cameras
Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) + NLCs
Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) is a naked eye visible comet that is currently in our night sky, I shot these clips in a field above Nidd Gorge close by where I live, as a bonus I was treated to some Noctilucent Clouds (NLCs) close to the horizon giving a nice shimmering colour effect
Brimham Rocks time lapse trip
Using my new transport I did my first unsupported time lapse trip to Brimham Rocks in North Yorkshire. This video includes parts of the route and a time lapse of me setting up taken with an Insta360 One X2 360 degree camera
another trip to brimham rocks
On Tuesday 7th September the weather was looking good so I did another trip up to Brimham Rocks. It was a scorching hot ride but it got quite cool later in the night. I shot a couple of time lapse sequences including and unusual 360 degree one with the Insta360 One X2. Also included is some footage of the journey
norwood lane time lapse trip
After scouting out this area while out with our local cycling club I cycled up on my recumbent trike and trailer, I now have e-assist on the trike which was very welcome as it is mostly uphill and towing a 40kg trailer is hard work. I shot 3 time lapse sequences with the main cameras and some 360 degree time lapse with my Insta360 One X2. I was also lucky to get some nice sunset and sunrise shots which I’ve included in the video