A blustery March afternoon found my wife Liz and I enjoying a brisk walk around the Marine Lake at West Kirby on the Wirral peninsula, England.
The Marine Lake is quite an unusual place, with a large portion of the tidal Dee estuary walled off to form the lake, and you can walk around the wall, as we did that afternoon.
However, the tides in this part of the world can be significant, especially at new or full moon, and we only just made it around the sea wall before the incoming tide swamped over the causeway and on into the Marine Lake itself.
Time then, to head to Tanskey's for a hot coffee beofre venturing out again to catch the tide turning and to capture the hundreds of still images needed to create this time lapse video showing the outer wall of the Marine Lake slowly emerging from the sea as the tide ebbed away again.
The windy conditions and choppy waves would have made for a very twitchy video had I not fitted my 10 stop neutral density filter to my camera, slowing the shutter speed down to a reasonable 3.2 seconds, resulting in a blurring of the water movement to some extent.
Filename - west kirby tide timelapse 01
Camera - Canon EOS 6DMK2
Lens - 17-40mm zoom @ 29mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 3.2 secs @ f/4, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 3.2 secs @ f/4, ISO100
Filters - 10 stop neutral density filter used to increase exposure time and blur motion. 2 stop neutral density graduated filter used to reduce the brightness of the sky.
Shooting interval - 6 seconds
Location - Marine Lake, West Kirby, Wirral, England
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K, and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 21 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.