Not what I expected, but you never know what to expect.

I set up my time-lapse camera — an old Canon G5 with a PClix attached — very early yesterday morning. We were supposed to get weather in Wickenburg and that meant clouds. (We don’t get clouds very often, so it’s notable.) I figured I’d get a dawn to sunset time-lapse of the weather moving through.

Unfortunately, it was cloudier than even I expected — not a glimpse of blue sky all day long. The video is a bit disappointing, although you can see the cloud movement and complete loss of visibility. The knobby mountain on the horizon is Vulture Peak, which is about 3 or 4 miles away as the crow flies. It doesn’t stay in the picture for long.

The formula for this video was one shot every 15 seconds, compiled at 30 fps. That takes a 12-hour period and reduces it to about a minute and a half.

One of the problems with shooting time-lapse movies of the sky is that you never know what to expect or where the best views will be. It’s all a crap shoot. That’s okay because the setup is digital and doesn’t cost a thing to operate. It’s just a matter of setting it up and running through the 2000+ photos it generates when it’s done.

I’ve got the camera set up again today and will have more action to show. There’s blue sky and a few clouds that are speeding through the sky, pushed by a strong wind. Perhaps you’ll see that here tomorrow.