Simple Time Lapse Photos

Not long ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find an interval timer feature in one of the cameras that I was using. With this feature, you can record the progress of an “event” with a series of photos taken at a set time between each capture. It’s commonly referred to as time lapse photography. An example of time lapse is the way that a flower seems to magically grow before your eyes as it blossoms.

Since I was curious about using this feature, I looked for an appropriate subject. It just so happens that we had recently returned from a trip out west and brought back a small collection of “Mexican jumping beans“.
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Once again, patience counts

Sometimes the only way to catch the perfect photo is to take a lot of them until you achieve the desired result. To retain the feeling of motion, I used a slow shutter speed (1/60th of a second). My goal was to “freeze” the young girl’s face, yet convey movement. After taking about twenty photos, I finally snapped one that I liked by being persistent (and patient).
I took about twenty photos similar to this one using a relatively slow shutter speed. While it captures the motion of the young girl, overall the photo is too blurred.	Here I snapped while the young girl is at the top of her swing where her velocity is zero. By waiting for this exact moment, I’ve been able to stop most of the motion.

It’s not too Late to Capture the Fall Colors   This article was a fun and easy assignment for me. From beginning to end it took barely two hours to shoot and write. Confession: I spent an additional 30 minutes driving back to the office to fetch the camera’s memory card which I inadvertently left with my computer.

Why was this assignment so easy? Because the colors and lighting do all of the talking.

Here the sun is at my back. This emphasizes the texture of the leaves.

Here I’ve moved a few feet so that the light is now coming from in back of the leaves.

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