Interesting how this retirement thing is working out. I was toying with several options this morning. I had some writing I needed to do, but as beautiful as the day was, I was also thinking about taking out a kayak. Laura suggested meeting at Furman for lunch, so I spent the morning writing, then headed up her way.
This was the first time I’d been to Furman since the student center was remodeled. I was impressed with the changes, which opened up more space for students to just hang out. It looked a bit weird – different, but it seemed like it would work.
We headed down to The Paddock, the new restaurant that serves beer and wine, a first on campus. The idea was to control access to students of age so that they aren’t drinking an driving. It’s an idea. Laura ordered nachos, and I got fish and chips.
The oaks behind the student center apparently were in very bad shape. Those were taken out, and new lakeside seating areas were installed with a pergola. The seating areas were cantilevered out over the lake. Both of the new places were occupied. It looked there was also a new fire pit next to the lake. Looks very different from when I was a student here, but nice none-the-less.
Laura had to get back to work, but I decided to stick around. With the clouds the way they were, it looked like it would be perfect for some time lapse. I grabbed my cameras and a small folding chair and headed out to the lake. First off I snapped a couple of shots with my still cameras…
…then I set up the GoPro on a tripod for some time lapse.
I’ve said it before. Don’t get into time lapse photography unless you have tons of patience. It takes a LONG time to get a decent clip. I set up my chair and watched one episode of Breaking Bad on my phone while the camera clicked away. After about and hour and twenty minutes I had my raw footage. Here’s the result:
While I was really after the clouds, I also picked up lots of activity on and around the lake, such as ducks, vehicles, people, and wind patterns on the water.
I had time, so I decided to change locations. This time I set up right in front of the library, aiming across the fountains toward the chapel.
As with the Belltower, I took a couple of shots will still cameras while shooting GoPro imagery.
This was a bit more awkward. I had to set up my chair away from the camera. So here’s this creepy old dude with a white beard hanging out in front of the library. I was just waiting for someone to question me. I did have to caution a couple of students not to touch the camera. One said he was checking to see if the camera was one that a friend had lost. Yeah, right.
Another episode of Breaking Bad passed quickly, and I had my raw footage. Here’s the result of that session:
This one looks better, in my opinion. Part of it is that it has less distracting motion. I’ve noticed that lots of TV shows and movies have started using a few seconds of time lapse here and there to show the passage of time. It looked like Breaking Bad use it extensively. However, in most of these shows extraneous motion is kept to a minimum. The shot is usually looking up at a build that stays fixed while the clouds roll over. I think I like that effect best, so I may have to try a few of those.
Extra movement or change in lighting conditions can be very distracting. I had a brainstorm to shoot a time lapse for eight hours at one frame every ten seconds. However, each shot would be on the following day. So, for example, the first shot would be at 06:00:00 on October 1, the next on 06:00:10 on October 2, and so forth. This would show the seasons changing over the course of one day, and would be cool as all get out. Unfortunately, it would also take 9 years and about 10 months to complete – nearly 10 years. Even if you scaled it back to one shot every thirty seconds, it would still take about three and a half years. As I said, you’ve got to have patience.