Time-lapse Collection 2012 Showreel

My time-lapse showreel arrived a bit late this year but here it is…

2012 was an exciting travel year from Svalbard, Norway to Northern Arizona photographing polar bears to ancient Sinaguan monuments. Time-lapse challenges with equipment and software were numerous and new workflows and techniques were forged by inevitable progress.

The monarch butterfly metamorphosis was the most challenging and educational. See my post on the process of capturing this impressive macro event in my studio.

The day-to-night time-lapses are the most difficult to capture smoothly and I tried several new dissolve techniques with varying degrees of success. The big tip is to know the moon phase and other celestial events that will influence your lighting. Shooting in RAW is critical.

Traffic was a new subject tested last year and I discovered the twilight hours produced the best results with a setting of a 1:2 ratio of exposure to interval. A stable platform is a must.

Astrophotography is one of my favorite time-lapse subjects and 2012 offered us a rare chance to witness a full solar eclipse which I botched due to my tripod. Lesson learned long ago was to use a two tripod or mono- tripod combo to stabilize long lenses. And good luck focusing.

My equipment performed flawless this year accept for crossing the leads on a 12v battery which melted. Always cover open battery leads! My Nikon D7000 dealt with extended freezing and hot conditions without any problems. Really hope to use the Dynamic Perceptions MX Dolly more in 2013 with planned car travel.

Some of the software used to create this showreel includes; Photoshop, Bridge, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, LRTimelapse and Starstax.

My new favorite app is The Photographers Ephemeris  (TPE). It saved me hours of scouting for my time-lapse workshop and worked flawless when we scuttled to Plan B because of fog.

Please join me at one of my time-lapse workshops over the next few months:

ASMP San Diego Time-lapse Photography Lecture & Workshop: May 9 & 11, 2013 in San Diego, California.
Brooks Institute Time-lapse Photography Workshop: July 12-14, 2013 in Ventura, California.

Thanks, Rich.

richreidphotography.com
timelapsecollection.com
richreidphoto.wordpress.com/

Music by Alexander Maas, MUX, iStockphoto

Monarch Butterfly Metamorphasis

An aphid next to a monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus egg attached to Mexican Butterfly Weed or Scarlet Milkweed, Asclepias curassavica in a garden in Oak View, California.

A young girl watching a monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus caterpillar eating Mexican Butterfly Weed or Scarlet Milkweed, Asclepias curassavica in their school garden in Meiners Oaks, California.

Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus mature caterpillar feeding on swamp milkweed in Oak View, California.

Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus chrysalis metamorphosing into a butterfly in a studio in Oak View, California.

Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus attached to its chrysalis during its first hour of life in Oak View, California.

Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus attached next to his chrysalis during his first hours of ermerging in Oak View, California.

Its December and monarchs are still emerging from their chrysalises because of the mild weather in California. Our garden was host to dozens of caterpillars this season that metamorphosed into the migrating generation of butterflies that will eventually hibernate this winter along the Pacific Coast.
After many outdoor attempts, I finally captured two time-lapses of a caterpillar transforming into a chrysalis and then into a butterfly in my indoor studio.

Technical Details:
Camera: Nikon D7000 with a macro 105mm lens at f/8.
JPEG 5,000 x 3,200, ISO 100 at 1/4 second exposure with a single light source.
sRGB color profile and manual white balance 3200k

Basic Workflow:
I used Bridge to selected 300 out of 2200 images for the first time-lapse and 400 out of 3000 images for the second time-lapse. Opened in Camera RAW and made adjustments, batch image processed into a folder. Import folder into Final Cut Pro and then export as an ProRes 422 quicktime file.

Music:
YeeHa Banjo Bill, The Tune Saloon, iStock Audio
Spycraft, Piotr Pacyna, iStock Audio