A calm clear morning close to midsummer was my cue to get up very early and head up the North Wales coast to watch the sunrise out over the offshore Colwyn Bay wind farm.
Being north facing, the coast in this part of the world is great for seeing and photographing a good sunrise or sunset, but more often than not the weather will prove less than amenable.
But not on this morning in early June.
With broken cloud to the northeast, allowing the sun to rise into a clear patch of sky, the stage was set for a dramatic sunrise time lapse featuring the massed ranks of wind turbines stretching to the horizon.
Due to the distance involved, and the desire to make the sun look as big as possible behind the turbines, I used the longest focal length lens I possessed, the Canon 100-400mm zoom, at its maximum setting.
Normally this is a recipe for disaster when shooting stills for a time lapse sequence, as the sea breeze will cause the picture framing to wobble even on the sturdiest tripod.
But fortunately for me the pre-sunrise air was almost completely still, and with every knob and fitting on the tripod firmly tightened the set up worked remarkably well, with a stable video as the result.
Mind you, the still conditions weren't so good for the wind turbines!
Filename - windfarm sunrise timelapse 01.mp4
Camera - Canon 6D
Lens - 100-400mm zoom @400mm
Exposure (start of sequence)
1 sec, f5.6, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence)
1/13 sec, f5.6, ISO100
Time between exposures - 3 secs
Location - Colwyn Bay, North Wales
This clip - HD 720p
Clip duration - 21 secs
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.