Time Lapse and Auto Focus

My last post was all about being prepared for the unexpected and even with all my considered preparation things went horribly wrong. As embarrassing as it is to talk about, the bottom line is; no matter how well organised I am, I will still make mistakes from time to time and as long as I learn from them it's quite okay.

What was the mistake? Using the TPE I had it in my mind that yellow was the colour of the Moon's trajectory.... I know, I know .... what was I thinking? A complete mystery and it took almost 36 hours to realise where I had gone wrong. Fair go, I'm still learning (and if I ever stop.... well, just put me out to pasture, hehe!).

Okay needless to say I didn't get the shot so whilst on the topic of mistakes and my learning curve I thought I would throw in another. When my friend invited me to Point Cartwright for some sunrise shooting, he was intent on capturing the rushing water between the rocks during long exposures for a particular look. I on the other hand whilst keen to try the same, was more intent on the time lapse transition from dawn to daylight. I was pretty sure that dark to light in particular starlight to sunlight was going to be too difficult for me at this early stage but one needs to begin somewhere so this was it.

I was quite pleased with the result (with the exception of my focus issue) which I'm posting up here for you to enjoy as much as you can and also to demonstrate what can go wrong if you forget to lock your focus. Not only is about 50% of the clip out of focus which changed with the rising of the sun, it's reflection and the help of a few birds but the frame keeps jumping back and forth as a result of the focus hunt as well.

I moved the camera to a shaded spot with the sun rising around the corner of the cliff as I didn't have an ND filter strong enough to reduce the glare that I would get but still didn't lock the focus. Actually I thought I had but you know what they say about "Thought", hey!

Hhmmmm, I had better think about posting a success story before you all think I'm a total failure. There are a few actually but I want to compose a nice little clip ... with music even so it may be a few days yet.

Till next time, take care and stay safe.