Tokyo Bay Timelapse

I finally got my shutter release timer from Hong Kong. It works great! Here is the latest attempt:

The original source video (sequenced from the original photos) was stunning, but I find I'm having a lot of trouble getting good quality output from iMovie '09. There are a lot of people complaining about it, so I guess it's iMovie and not just me. In frustration, I bought Final Cut Express 4, but it won't arrive for a few days so I guess we'll see the improvement in the next video.

I've seen a lot of other great time lapse videos on YouTube lately. There are a lot of really talented people out there. It seems to me now that the true secret is to think of it as a photo with some life breathed into it. The best time lapse videos I've seen would be beautiful as still photos. Adding the time lapse component just gives the photo a bit extra. Adding music, pan and zoom adds mood. But it should start with a beautiful and interesting photo.

Time Lapse

I ran across mockmoon2000's YouTube channel a couple of weeks ago and started what may turn out to be an obsession with shooting time lapse videos.

Below is my latest attempt, shot with an old video camera hooked up to my neighbour Joe's Mac Mini in webcam mode, using open-source software Gawker to create the movie. I edited it using iMovie '09.



The resolution and image quality was not very good, so now I'm waiting for a timer shutter release trigger to be shipped from Hong Kong, which will allow me to use my Canon SLR to create higher-quality, smoother videos. So hopefully in a few weeks I'll post something really nice.

Enjoy. ;-)