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Sunset over the Menai Straits

License this video (5K, 4K, and HD formats available)

The story behind this video

Late afternoon on a cold winter's day and I was considering heading home after a long day re-visting and photographing some of my favourite locations around Snowdonia and Anglesey.

To the southwest the sun was heading towards the horizon when a spectacular bank of broken cloud arrived from over the sea, allowing shafts of sunlight to track across the scene like searchlights.

I quickly re-formulated my plans for going home, and headed to a spot on the Menai Straits where I knew that, at this time of year, I'd get a grandstand view of the light show over the waters of the Straits.

Well, I wasn't disappointed, and I was able to capture this time lapse sequence of the beams of light shooting from the setting sun as it played hide and seek in and out of the fast moving clouds.

The tide had turned a couple of hours previously and was ebbing fast as the sun finally set, so I stayed put and captured a second burst of time lapse as the sandbanks of the Straits slowly revealed themselves and the light bled from the sky, reflecting in the calm waters below.

Well worth delaying teatime to witness!

Video data


Filename - menai straits timelapse 03.mp4

Camera - Canon EOS 6D

Lens (1st sequence) - 24-105 zoom @ 65mm
Lens (2nd sequence) - 17-40 zoom @ 17mm

Exposure (1st sequence) - 1/60 sec @ f11, ISO100
Exposure (2nd sequence) - 2 secs @f16, ISO100

Shooting interval (1st sequence) - 5 seconds
Shooting interval (2nd sequence) - 10 seconds

Location - Menai Straits, Anglesey, North Wales

This clip - HD 720p

Clip duration - 30 seconds at 25 frames per second.