Well it's that time of year again, the couple of weeks either side of the midsummer solstice when I get up ridiculously early and head to the North Wales coast to catch the sunrise.
There are a few 'go to' spots along the north facing coast that provide a great foreground against which to set the sunrise, and my chosen destination on this particular morning was that queen of seaside resorts, Llandudno.
The obvious view, facing northeast towards the projected sunrise, is overlooking the iconic Victorian pier from the footpath opposite the cheerfully named 'Happy Valley' car park.
So I was up at 2am and on the road fifteen minutes later, arriving at Llandudno at 3am, in anticipation of the 4.45am sunrise.
Why so early?
Well another visual treat over the north Wales coast at this time of year is the random appearance of those ghostly, high altitude noctilucent clouds that appear a couple of hours after sunset and before sunrise, and I was hoping to catch a view of these clouds over the pier before sunrise.
But in the end it was not to be, and I'll have to try again to catch the noctilucents.
But I wasn't disappointed as I was treated to a lovely show of glowing twilight colours in the lightly clouded skies above the pier so I wasted no time in setting up my camera to record as the first part of this time lapse video.
But at 4.30am, fifteen minutes before sunrise and using my Photopills app, I repositioned my camera by a few paces to line up the sunrise over the shapely pavillion at the end of the pier.
And then it was a case of enjoying the show as the sun broke the horizon and started its rising arc over the pier pavillion and the turbines of the Gwynt-y-Môr offshore windfarm lining the horizon.
Eventually the sun passed out of my camera's viewfinder and it was time to call it a morning and head back home for breakfast.
And when I checked the time I was quite surprised to realised I'd been stood watching and filming for over two and a half hours.
What a glorious way to start a day!
Filename - llandudno sunrise timelapse 05
Camera - Canon EOS 6DMK2
Lens (Clip #1 & Clip #2) - 24-105mm zoom @ 25mm
Lens (Clip #3) - 100-400mm zoom @ 100mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 10 secs @ f/4.5, ISO800
Exposure (end of sequence) - 1/1600 sec @ f/4.5, ISO100
Filters (Clip #1 & Clip #2) - 2/3 stop neutral density reverse graduated filter used to reduce the brightness of the sky along the horizon.
Filters (Clip #3) - None.
Shooting interval (Clip #1 & Clip #2) - 10 seconds
Shooting interval (Clip #3) - 3 seconds
Music - Pressure by Riot
Location - Llandudno, North Wales
Video processing - Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Premiere Pro
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 37 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2023 unless otherwise stated.