New Panning Time Lapse Device: Lawn Sprinkler Timer?

I've been using a Stainless Steel egg timer that I bought off Amazon.com as a simple panning device for my time lapse sequences. The egg timer will rotate a full 360 degrees in one hour. I thought that having other options would be nice, and found a lawn sprinkler timer at the Home Depot that rotates 360 degrees in 2 hours. Basically, the rotation is half as fast. I bought one, and immediately dis-assembled it to see how it worked. The actual timer is very similar to the egg timer, so the gear ratio must just be different. I added a 1/4" screw, which is a standard size for cameras, to the top. Then I drilled another hole in the bottom to add a 1/4" screw and coupler, which can attach to any standard tri-pod fitting. I sawed the hose fittings off, and used a Dremel tool to smooth out the plastic where the fittings were removed. The lawn sprinkler seems more stable than the egg timer, and I'll be testing it out soon to see the differences in panning speed.

I'll post a video when I get a chance to test the new lawn sprinkler panning device.

Lightning photography has been on my list of things to attempt, but it's pretty much a waiting game and being at the right place at the right time. A line of storms rolled through Madison this last Saturday night, and I was able to set up shop overlooking the lake from the University of Wisconsin Lifesaving Station. Since I had never attempted this before, I took a few test shots, and ended up with some pretty good results. I set the exposure on the camera at 30 seconds, and kept the aperature at about f/6.3. Click the shutter and hope that lightening strikes. Here are a couple of good ones from Saturday night.

For more images from this Lightning set click here!

Renneckar / Sugar Wedding: Kite Aerial Photography

I was only able to get 2 sessions with the kite aerial photography rig during the Rennackar / Sugar wedding. Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough wind, and I was only able to fly with the GoPro HD Hero Camera. I was able to get a few aerial images to make me happy, but would have liked to put the G11 up in the air too. Here are a couple of samples from the first and last days.

For additional KAP images from the Homestead Resort, click here.

Renneckar / Sugar Wedding: Light Art at Club Manitou!

I decided that I wanted to try out a technique called light art. Basically, you get in a dark area and set the camera to a really long exposure, and then you have someone use a flashlight to spell something out in the air, or trace something. Katie helped me, and we had a great time trying to figure out how to spell stuff backwards and seeing the results!

For additional light art images, click here!

Renneckar / Sugar Wedding: Canoe-Kayak Time Lapse

The morning of the Renneckar / Sugar wedding, Darby and Tim planned a canoe and kayak outing going down the Crystal River in Glen Arbor, Mi. We utilized the Crystal River Outfitters and drove upstream about 6 miles. We had a group between 50 and 60 people and about 30 canoes and kayaks. I brought along the GoPro HD Hero and attached it to a different canoe at different locations. I created 2 time lapse sequences from the shots. One is a fast sequence, and the other is slightly slower with a cartoon effect.

Click on each image to watch time lapse video

Lake Mendota Time Lapse

I spent the weekend in Madison, Wisconsin working at the University of Wisconsin Lifesaving Station, and made it a goal to capture a number of time-lapse sequences. I had just finished creating a panning mount using an egg timer, specifically for the GoPro HD Hero camera. So in addition to capturing images every 2 seconds, the camera is also slowly moving from right to left. The sailboat images were captured with a Canon 7D on the roof of the Lifesaving Station, and show the 2010 Collegiate Sailing Team National Championships hosted by Hoofers Sailing Club and the the University of Wisconsin Sailing team.

Click on the image below to preview time lapse sequence