I've been assembling some time lapse footage from my place and also the top of my neighbor's hill which is a short walk to some stunning 360 views. The country is pretty dry at the moment...actually, it's as dry as I've seen it in the 20 years we've been here.

Camera is a Pentax K50 and I usually set it up to take 450 or so images at 3 - 6 second intervals. Adobe Lightroom handled the adjustments then all the photos were imported into Panolapse which turned them into a movie and added some slight panning or zooming motion. All the movies were then put into Video Studio and edited into the final movie. I think I've taken over 10,000 photos while I've been doing this. I just hope I don't wear the camera out.

Fantastic clips John! The cattle segment made me grin a little:D Beautiful country you have there! Thanks for sharing.

That's awesome John.

Excellent video! Very calming & soothing. I like how the cattle looked like little ants moving around. Thanks for sharing.

hello john and wow you are blessed with such a great area,its no wonder you are so damn good at this kiting game with such flat areas

Awesome.. I especially enjoy the night sky portions..

Impressive John!!

That's great John, especially the night sky thing. I'm interested.
Could someone like me with zero experience do this and how, what do I need to obtain good results in order to capture the night sky ?

Thanks guys!

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Could someone like me with zero experience do this and how, what do I need to obtain good results in order to capture the night sky ?

It's a bit fiddly, but if you've got suitable gear it's not too difficult. Mount your camera on a sturdy tripod, set your exposure for 8 - 20 seconds depending on your night sky. Set ISO 800 - 3200 depending on how noisy the camera sensor is. Set your lens to wide open and least zoom (anywhere from 8mm to 50mm can give good results). Unless your tripod is rock solid, use the 2 second delay shutter release and let rip.

Obviously, an SLR will give the most flexibility (I used a Pentax K50) but my little compact panasonic also has a night sky feature that you can set for 5 - 30 seconds. My K50 has an interval shooting feature so I can set it to take ie: 450 shots at 22 second intervals (assuming a 20 second exposure). You can also buy 3rd party intervalometers to plug into most SLR's and control the shutter release. Compact cameras could be more problematic for interval shooting - some may have programs for it.

Then take your 400 odd photos and load them into something like Panolapse to make your time lapse movie. I set mine up for 25fps so it plays well with my video editor and eventually youtube to give reasonably smooth results.

I also make a lot of adjustments to my photos in Adobe Lightroom before I import them into Panolapse - but that's not necessary.

These days, DSLR's are coming way down in price and you should be able to pick up something suitable for not much more than a compact digital camera if you don't already own one.

What I love most are the Aurora time lapses - one day I might even take a trip way up north to see and photograph them. I occasionally see the southern aurora down here but it's usually just a pale glow on the horizon - I think I've only ever really seen it once properly here about 20 years ago. If only I'd had a digital camera then!

super beautiful man , great job

Nicely done John. Both video and your place are to be proud of.

Yes very cool

Nice.

Susan (npw goddess)

Pretty work Brother John.

Great stuff John!

Quote: Originally posted by John Holgate

Thanks guys! Quote: Could someone like me with zero experience do this and how, what do I need to obtain good results in order to capture the night sky ? It's a bit fiddly, but if you've got suitable gear it's not too difficult. Mount your camera on a sturdy tripod, set your exposure for 8 - 20 seconds depending on your night sky. Set ISO 800 - 3200 depending on how noisy the camera sensor is. Set your lens to wide open and least zoom (anywhere from 8mm to 50mm can give good results). Unless your tripod is rock solid, use the 2 second delay shutter release and let rip. Obviously, an SLR will give the most flexibility (I used a Pentax K50) but my little compact panasonic also has a night sky feature that you can set for 5 - 30 seconds. My K50 has an interval shooting feature so I can set it to take ie: 450 shots at 22 second intervals (assuming a 20 second exposure). You can also buy 3rd party intervalometers to plug into most SLR's and control the shutter release. Compact cameras could be more problematic for interval shooting - some may have programs for it. Then take your 400 odd photos and load them into something like Panolapse to make your time lapse movie. I set mine up for 25fps so it plays well with my video editor and eventually youtube to give reasonably smooth results. I also make a lot of adjustments to my photos in Adobe Lightroom before I import them into Panolapse - but that's not necessary. These days, DSLR's are coming way down in price and you should be able to pick up something suitable for not much more than a compact digital camera if you don't already own one. What I love most are the Aurora time lapses - one day I might even take a trip way up north to see and photograph them. I occasionally see the southern aurora down here but it's usually just a pale glow on the horizon - I think I've only ever really seen it once properly here about 20 years ago. If only I'd had a digital camera then!

Many thanks John. I would like to try this. I haven't a camera yet but at least now I know what to buy. Yeah I'd really like to capture the motion of the stars. I'd like to let it run from sunset to sunrise, possible ?

Maybe you should combine a trip to Scotland when the Sun is at its most active, maybe even Iceland, get some night-time lava flows too.

Very cool, John. Looks like you got some great land for kiting!

Many thanks for the kudos, guys and gals!

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I'd like to let it run from sunset to sunrise, possible ?

I believe so. You would probably need to plug in an ac adapter to power the camera - I doubt the batteries would last all night. You also may have to keep an eye on dew forming on the camera.

Relatively short shutter speeds (10 - 20 seconds) will freeze the motion of the stars so that they're pinpoints - but long gaps between exposures will probably make the motion jerky. Short gaps will give smooth results but you'll end up with 1200 odd photos which will be a little time consuming to deal with.

Long exposures of several minutes each will show the stars as lines as they travel across the sky - that would keep the number of photos you have to deal with much less and you'll still record any meteors/planes/satellites/ufo's etc on the exposures. To do that, I think you will need an external intervalometer like this: Intervalometer

My Pentax will only take up to 30 seconds automatically. It has a B setting "bulb" that allows the shutter to be left open for any amount of time - great for several shots when I'm timing them myself but not something that can be automated by the camera - hence the need for an external gadget.

Buy either a Canon or Nikon. While my Pentax is great, lens choices are far smaller than Canon or Nikon - everyone makes accessories or lenses for them.

Here is a brilliant astro time lapse video that combines short and long exposures - I don't know the techniques he's used to combine them but it shows what you can do...

Great vid, exactly the effect I'm after. Thanks again John. I have now bookmarked this page. Yeah I want smooth results. I don't mind time consuming stuff if it means good video. I would have to rig up power to the camera somehow, maybe an inverter running off a car battery because the location I have in mind is inaccessible by car.