Tag Archives: time-lapse

Saguaro Flowers / Clouds Time-Lapse

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The clouds steal the show.

I’m really liking this high-quality time-lapse movie creation. It’s fun. Best of all, I can set it up to do a job while I’m home and check the results later.

Today’s experiment came out better than expected. The main goal was to create a time-lapse movie of today’s saguaro flowers closing. (The flowers of the saguaro cactus bloom at night and are wilted and closed by late afternoon.) But I set up the camera to include the sky beyond, which was just filling with clouds. The building clouds stole the show.

If you think this looks good, you should see it in full quality at 1936 x 1296 pixels. That’s the lowest resolution my Nikon D80 can deliver, so that’s how I bring it into QuickTime.

I shut it down when I did for a few reasons:

  • The camera’s battery was almost depleted. It had snapped 621 images 20 seconds apart.
  • The wind was kicking up. I worried that a gust could knock over the camera and tripod and damage my camera on the concrete surface of my back patio.
  • The sun had moved above and behind the cactus. That wasn’t the best lighting for the flowers.
  • The flowers were just about fully closed.

I’m recharging the battery now. If the clouds dissipate a bit, I may relocate the camera to my upstairs patio and attempt a sunset time-lapse.

If you’re new to this blog or have stumbled onto this page and wonder what the heck this is all about, read “Time-Lapse Mania” to learn more.

WebCam Timelapse – July 31, 2007

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More storms.

My friend Tom took a great photo of the storm cloud that passed through Wickenburg yesterday. I thought it might be interesting to see a timelapse for the same day:

[qt:https://aneclecticmind.com/wp-content/movies/Timelapse-073107.mov https://aneclecticmind.com/wp-content/movies/Timelapse-073107-poster.mov 320 256]

Remember, after clicking this image, you may have to wait a few seconds for it to load before it starts playing. Be patient and click only once. It’ll play right in this window. QuickTime is required.

I live to the west of Tom (that’s to the left in this photo) about a mile away. Although you can see the storm clouds moving in in this timelapse, the view is different: Tom was looking northwest; my view is northeast.

Want More?

If you’re really into these timelapse images, you can download the entire set for July: 18 QuickTime movies in a 20.6 MB ZIP file.

Or you can do what a few folks at wickenburg-az.com have done: get on my e-mail list for a daily distribution of the day’s timelapse movie, mailed at at about 8 PM MST each evening. The distribution list is only used for the automated distribution of these timelapses, so don’t worry about spam. To get on the list, contact me. To get off the list, just reply to one of the distribution messages and let me know that you’ve had enough.

Webcam Timelapse – July 22, 2007

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Missed us again!

The forecast actually called for rain here in Wickenburg. And the storm got ever closer, as you can see in this timelapse, with dark gray clouds and high winds. But, in the end, it past northwest of us.

Dang!

Here’s the timelapse:

[qt:https://aneclecticmind.com/wp-content/movies/Timelapse-072207.mov https://aneclecticmind.com/wp-content/movies/Timelapse-072207-poster.mov 320 256]

Remember, after clicking this image, you may have to wait a few seconds for it to load before it starts playing. Be patient and click only once. It’ll play right in this window. QuickTime is required.

The good news is, the storm also dropped temperatures. At about 3 PM, when I stepped outside, I discovered that it was in the low 80s outside. That’s 20° lower than normal! Yippee! We shut off the air conditioner and opened as many windows as we could. Even slept with the windows open last night!

WebCam Timelapse – July 21, 2007

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Clouds, then thunder. But still no rain.

We spent most of yesterday driving around back roads in the Bradshaw Mountains, escaping the heat. There were isolated T-storms up there and we got drizzled on, but not seriously wet.

At home, the WebCam did its job and captured the local sky cover. Although it was only partly cloudy in Wickenburg when we returned home at 4:30 PM, the clouds moved in quickly. We had a rainbow (not captured on the video) just before sunset and could clearly hear thunder and see lightning.

But no rain.

Here’s the timelapse for the day:

[qt:https://aneclecticmind.com/wp-content/movies/Timelapse-072107.mov https://aneclecticmind.com/wp-content/movies/Timelapse-072107-poster.mov 320 256]

Remember, after clicking this image, you may have to wait a few seconds for it to load before it starts playing. Be patient and click only once. It’ll play right in this window. QuickTime is required.

I’ve got higher hopes for today since storm clouds are already close at 1:18 PM. Radar shows them moving southwest; there’s a slight chance they might pass just northwest of us. I hope not. I’m ready for a good storm.

WebCam Timelapse – July 16, 2007

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It’s getting closer!

My WebCam has been faithfully making timelapse movies every day. I’m trying not to bore you by showing you all of them.

Yesterday’s sky was extremely active. Cloudy then mostly sunny then cloudy with an approaching thunderstorm. This video shows an excellent example of a typical monsoon summer day here in Arizona. The storm was fast approaching and Mike and I really thought we’d get poured on. But when the sun sets, the storm’s main source of energy is removed. It dissipates quickly — usually within an hour of sunset. And although yesterday’s storm got close — probably within 20 miles — it died before it reached us.

Darn!

Here’s the video from the day. I’ve tweaked the settings to shoot a new frame every 8 minutes and create the video at the framrate of 5 frames per second. That stretches out the video to 20 seconds without making a major increase in the file size.

[qt:https://aneclecticmind.com/wp-content/movies/Timelapse-071607.mov https://aneclecticmind.com/wp-content/movies/Timelapse-071607-poster.mov 320 256]

Remember, after clicking this image, you may have to wait a few seconds for it to load before it starts playing. Be patient and click only once. It’ll play right in this window. QuickTime is required.