What a day!
A beautiful day in late March and I actually had a day off work to myself, so I was determined to make the most of it.
I started off at 4.00am on the the top of my local hill, Moel Famau, shooting stills for what I hoped would be a great timelapse sequence showing stars wheeling around the ruined Jubilee Tower.
Well that was a bust! A stupid focusing error on my part, and an excess of light pollution from Liverpool rendered my 4 hours effort into nothing more than a large chunk of files in my recycle bin. You live and learn.
I cheered myself up with a pizza, and then back out again, this time to the North Wales coast.
It was too early in the afternoon for meaningful photography so I took a cameraless climb up the Sychnant Pass to one of my favourite spots overlooking Conwy Morfa, basking in the warm sunshine and relaxing without any compulsion to take a photo at all.
Then it was back down to sea level for the short drive to Llandudno and a breathless climb up the Little Orme, fully laden with LowePro, tripod and cold weather gear.
I wanted to do something that I'd had on my list for quite a while, and that was to capture a timelapse sequence of sunset and dusk over the Great Orme, on the far western side of the bay.
I was determined not to waste this opportunity, as I had up Moel Famau earlier in the day, so I double checked everything and worked out in advance how I would handle that tricky exposure transition from day to night.
Of course, I also made sure my focusing was bang on this time.
I started shooting about an hour and a half before sunset, and kept going for a full 3 hours with an exposure every 30 seconds.
I was treated to a visual feast as I sat on the top of the Little Orme. First of all the sun was a bright star in a lovely blue sky, then, as it sank towards the horizon the light turned orange with the haze on the western horizon.
Once the sun had disappeared behind the Great Orme the sky started to darken and the streetlights of Llandudno came on. Slowly, slowly the last of the twilight faded from the sky and the lights of the town stood out more and more in the gathering gloom until all light in the sky vanished and night finally arrived in its silken blackness.
Over Llandudno the crescent moon, flanked by Jupiter and Venus, glowed brightly, and Orion the hunter appeared low to the horizon over the mountains of Snowdonia. But photographing them is going to have to wait for another rare day off.
Time to pack up and carefully make my way back over the ankle twisting rocks by torchlight, down the side of the Little Orme and back to my car, my spirit soaring in the beauty and splendour of what I'd just witnessed of the past few hours.
I don't know about you, but when I see how wonderfully the universe, and especially our little bit of it, has been designed I just can't help marvelling at the wisdom and love of God who put it all together.
Filename - llandudno timelapse 07.mp4
Camera - Canon EOS 5D
Lens - 17-40mm zoom @ 17mm
Exposure - Varying throughout
Location - Little Orme, Llandudno, North Wales
This clip - HD 720p
Clip duration - 16 seconds at 25 frames per second.
Shooting interval - 30 seconds
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