One thing America does really well is National Parks.
And one of the crown jewels in the Rocky Mountain National Park is the Alpine Visitor Centre, at just under 12,000 feet above sea level, accessed by the Trail Ridge Road, the highest paved road in the U.S.A.
During our two week holiday in the Rockies, my wife Liz and I made three or four visits up to the Alpine Centre, driving there along the Trail Ridge Road or the single track Old Fall River Road (quite an experience in its own right!)
The first time we went to this high altitude, just after we'd arrived from our sea level UK home, it was all we could do to climb out of the car and stagger to the view overlook and toilets.
But as time went by and we got acclimatised to the thin air we were able to do more and more, up to our last visit just before we went back home, when we were able to climb the 250 foot high, aptly named, 'Huffers Hill', overlooking the Visitor Centre itself.
The view was both amazing and amusing, with clouds racing by overhead painting the landscape with patches of light and shadow, while tiny looking cars drove round and round the car park looking for a space and intrepid hikers followed in our footsteps up and down Huffers Hill.
The scene was ripe for a time lapse, so while Liz and I got our breath back and munched on a sandwich, I set the camera going, recording a frame every two seconds and catching the hikers, cars, clouds and sunlight all in a manic dance.
If you look very carefully at the high resolution version of the video, you can just make out the queue for the vault toilets (another Rocky Mountain experience!) at the nearest side of the car park.
Filename - rocky mountain timelapse 04
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 28mm
Exposure (start of sequence)
1/25 sec @ f16, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence)
1/25 sec @ f16, ISO100
Capture interval - 2 secs
Location - Alpine Visitor Centre, Rocky Mountains, Colorado, U.S.A.
This clip - HD 720p
Clip duration - 25 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.