To mis-quote Forrest Gump 'A sunset is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get!'
That's certainly true of my home in North Wales, as the weather can turn in just a few minutes and the only way of capturing a sunset time lapse is to set up and do it regardless of the conditions, as things will probably change while you're filming.
So that's what I did this particular Saturday afternoon in late November 2017.
My wife Liz and I had spent the afternoon driving and photographing in the mountains of Snowdonia and were on our way back home when we saw a rather nice sky developing to the west.
So we turned off the main road and drove down to the West Shore at Llandudno, pretty much the only place on the North Wales coast you can watch the sun set down to the southwest horizon in the winter months.
The wind was blowing strongly at this point, whipping up the sea and sending heavy clouds streaming by overhead.
It was also freezing cold at this point, so I quickly set up my camera to record the stills for this time lapse and retreated to the car, keeping an eye on the tripod in case it looked like it was about to blow over.
In the end we didn't get a sunset as such, but those clouds blowing by did pick up some really nice colours before the light fled the scene and everything turned the steely blue colour of twilight as the sun sank below the horizon.
Once all the colour had gone it was a quick dash out into the freezing wind to rescue the camera and then home for a warming bowl of soup.
Like Forrest Gump said - 'You never know what you're gonna get!'
Filename - llandudno sunset timelapse 05.mp4
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens - 17-40mm zoom @ 17mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 1/60 sec @ f4, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 1/15 sec @ f4, ISO100
Filters - 3 stop neutral density graduated filter used to balance the exposure between the sky and foreground.
Shooting interval - 3 seconds
Location - Llandudno West Shore, North Wales
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps
Clip duration - 10 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.