Sunrise in the middle of June comes uncharitably early on the North Wales coast, at 53 degrees north of the equator.
I got up at 2.30am, enthused by a weather forecast that promised clear skies at dawn over the coast, and was on my way by 3am to capture the stills for a timelapse video that I've wanted to make for quite a while now.
My vision was to capture the sun rising behind the huge offshore Colwyn Bay windfarm, with metaphors such as 'New Dawn' buzzing round in my head.
However, when I got there I found that the forecast had been somewhat optimisitic and there was a bank of moderate cloud covering the eastern horizon, blocking the all important sunrise.
Hey ho and onto plan B then.
A study of the tide the previous evening showed me that there was quite a large tidal range that day, with low water occuring just at sunrise.
So my plan B was to set up on my favourite piece of beach architecture, the jetty, and make a time lapse sequence of the incoming tide rushing over the planks towards me.
Well my plan nearly worked. The water came in very nicely (the tide does that - funky eh?) and was just about to start whoosing up the jetty when my alarm went off signalling the end of festivities for the morning and a rush to get to work for 8.00am on the dot.
Oh well, the best laid plans etc.
In the end I decided to make the video anyway, after all the trouble I'd gone to to get the stills, and was pleasantly suprised at the outcome, which you can see here.
It still leaves me with two time lapse videos on my 'to do' list for the future though, and more early starts no doubt.
Filename - llandudno timelapse 08.mp4
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 17-40mm zoom
Location - Llandudno, North Wales
This clip - HD 720p
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