An early autumn evening on the North Wales coast and my wife Liz and I were parked up on the promenade at Llanfairfechan, hoping for a glimpse of the promised aurora borealis (northern lights) that was supposed to be particularly active during this two day spell.
I had my trusty Canon 6D camera, tripod mounted on the sea wall looking north out over the exposed sands towards Penmon Point and Puffin Island, ready to go the moment the aurora put in an appearance.
But the twilight scene before me was just too beautiful to miss, so I started my camera shooting stills for a time lapse sequence well before the sky was due to become fully dark, aiming to get a lovely transition from light to dark, followed by the appearance of the aurora in a hour or so's time, after astronomical twilight had passed.
Well the twilight light show just got better and better, with the thin clouds catching the skyglow from the sun as it made its way further down behind the western horizon.
As the sky became darker, the lights of Anglesey became relatively brighter as I increased my exposures to cope with the gathering gloom, while at the margins of sand and sea, a lone angler plied his craft, his head torch sending beams of light across the wet sand and tidal pools between us.
I kept on shooting until well after full darkness had arrived, but the longed for aurora never appeared - never mind, there's always next time!
But although the aurora no-show was a disappointment, I was delighted by the beauty I had managed to photograph that lovely evening, and this time lapse video is the result.
I hope you enjoy the show!
Filename - llanfairfechan timelapse 04.mp4
Camera - Canon 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @105mm
Exposure (start of sequence)
4 secs, f4, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence)
4 secs, f4, ISO3200
Filters - None
Time between exposures - 10 secs
Location - Llanfairfechan, North Wales coast
This clip - HD 720p
Clip duration - 14 secs
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.