Well, so far the winter of 2022/23 had been rather damp and miserable, but every now and then a ridge of high pressure arrived over north Wales, the skies cleared and the sun came out.
January 2nd was just such a day, and my wife Liz and I were determined to make the most of it, with a drive around the beautiful scenery of Snowdonia, planning to end up at the coast to catch the sunset.
And it was a lovely day out, the perfect remedy to the cabin fever we were both suffering from.
Late on in the afternoon we passed through Llanberis and took the road down to Caernarfon, where we parked up opposite the magnificent castle and watched as daylight slowly faded from the scene and the lights of the castle and town walls came on.
But of course, it wasn't enough for me to just watch, and I soon had my camera, tripod and intervalometer set up to record this time lapse video of the transition from day to night.
But I needed one more piece of specialised equipment, a pair of wellies!
As the tide was coming in along the Menai Straits, and there wasn't a breath of wind, we were treated to a lovely reflection of the castle in the calm waters along the shoreline where I was filming.
But in order to include the reflection in my composition I had to immerse my camera and myself in the rising water, hence the wellies.
So there I stood, shooting away until the sky had turned completely dark and the sea was almost to the top of my boots before finally calling it a day and heading home.
What a wonderful end to a rare, but perfect day.
Filename - caernarfon castle timelapse 01
Camera - Canon EOS 6DMK2
Lens - 17-40mm zoom @ 26mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 1/4 sec @ f/4, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 2.5 secs @ f/4, ISO100
Filters - 2 stop neutral density graduated filter used to balance the brightness of the scene with its reflection.
Shooting interval - 6 sec
Music - Lifting Dreams - Aakash Gandhi
Location - Caernarfon, North Wales
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 15 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2023 unless otherwise stated.