The Video: Flowers Blooming
Inception:
I still remember the first time we got a
computer to our house. I had just finished my 7th grade and my
brother, his eamcet(some lame exam), both with flying colors and exceeding
expectations. And the gift was “my computer”. I had no clue what the
possibilities of the computer were, back then. All I knew was paint! So after
painting a house, a smiley face, a Christmas tree and a lot of random stuff, I
got tired and started exploring the free softwares that were shipped with the
desktop. I came across the free encyclopedia Britannica, gift for the purchase.
Encyclopedia eh! Full of text. Boring!( back then :\).. I wanted to see
pictures and videos and searched for all the video files and I vaguely remember
that there was something about birds in “galopigas island” (I wonder why I
remember that name so well). So anyways there was this one video of a purple
flower blooming right from the bud to full bloom and I thought wow! I would so
that someday. And of course I completely forgot about it right away :D.
Idle Brain is no longer the devils workshop!
And soo.. 9 years later, I find myself jobless
on a weekend (well not literally jobless). Trying to escape from my
oh-so-not-happy-thoughts, I suddenly realized that I had been staring at a
flower too long with my eyes out of focus – and OMG the flower had started
blooming, I could see its little petals unfurling right in front of my eyes and
BAM!! The encyclopedia flower blooming video suddenly popped up into my head
and then another neuron said time lapse video (outta nowhere). And well.. what
was I waiting for?.. I dashed into my room, got my camera and a Tripod, all too
excited to start my “first ever timelapse video” , a wish which has been
lurking around the corner of my head since 9 years(I wonder how brain works!).
And boy! Was that Easy!!(Sarcasm) Read on.. I will be giving few pointers in
the end for shooting timelapse video.
Out of Focus:
And so it had begun. I set up the tripod, fit
the camera onto it and was clicking away every 10 to 20 seconds for half hour,
only to realize in the end that the camera was not on “macro” and the flower
was completely out of focus. Damn! Now I had to wait for another weekend
- the flower only starts blooming from 4 pm to 6 pm and I was always gonna be
in office at that time during the weekdays. Well, there wasn’t much I could do
other than wait for the next weekend. Attempt1 unsuccessful!
Shake it Baby
The next weekend had arrived and with it,
arrived my attemp2. This time I was very careful abt the camera set in the
right mode and started clicking away.. so sure that I would finish it this
weekend. And well.. bad luck strikes again and I tripped over the tripod, the
camera position had gone haywire and my timelapse video remained unfinished. No
worries, I can still try it out the next weekend rt?!
Wind - Thou heartless Bitch
Weekend with attempt3 has started. This time i
made sure the camera mode was macros and my feet weren’t anywhere near the
tripod, but the wind started playing the villain. With every whoosh, the flower
moved outta its default position. Attempt3 gone to dogs. As always, I consoled
myself with the though - next weekend baby!
Battery OVER
Attempt4: battery gave up on me halfway through
the blooming. I frantically searched for a way to charge the camera when its
connected to laptop, but couldn’t find one. I was getting frustrated now.
Helpless.. having to wait for another weekend. I put the batteries in the
charger and plugged em in all through the week in the store room so that no1
would disturb it.
Battery Trolled
Well, weekend 5 came with calm sky and no wind
yayy!! But bad news was just waiting around the corner- when I went into the
store room to get my batteries, the plug had come loose and the lil yellow
light that says “charging” was off. God knows when it had come loose, I hadn’t
checked it the whole week. But then again, it was blinking when I had put in
for charging, so lets hope for the best and well.. the universe seems to be
conspiring against me and in no time the display on the camera starts to blink
away the “low battery” signal. And suddenly it occurred to me, why don’t I
switch the camera off in that 10 to 20 seconds gap when im not clicking the
photo. And it worked!! Battery trolled! Oh yeah!! And though I had finished the
full flower blooming, I was still not yet satisfied with the video. I was ready
for the final attempt and I waited for the last weekend..
Triumph
Finally attempt6 has lived up to my
expectations. I used photolapse to stich the photos into a video and the
surprising part is that I could use the half done video from all my previous
attempts to make full fledged one–and it turned out better since it had
the flower blooming from different angles. Here’s the link. Trust me – There is
no such thing as Time Waste, Everything u do WILL someday come in handy!
Tips for TimeLapse Photography
- Choose your subject such that 60% of the frame is
static and only 40%(even less is better) is moving.
- Use a software for timelapse photography which takes
snapshots by remote capture :P (which i found out later)
- Avoid taking outdoor snapshots for long as the sunlight
changes and the video would become flashy
- Use YouTube-stabilizer for the video
- it does wonders.
- Try and confine your video to a closed room with
uniform lighting and not much wind throughout the video
The Video: Flowers Blooming
Inception:
I still remember the first time we got a
computer to our house. I had just finished my 7th grade and my
brother, his eamcet(some lame exam), both with flying colors and exceeding
expectations. And the gift was “my computer”. I had no clue what the
possibilities of the computer were, back then. All I knew was paint! So after
painting a house, a smiley face, a Christmas tree and a lot of random stuff, I
got tired and started exploring the free softwares that were shipped with the
desktop. I came across the free encyclopedia Britannica, gift for the purchase.
Encyclopedia eh! Full of text. Boring!( back then :\).. I wanted to see
pictures and videos and searched for all the video files and I vaguely remember
that there was something about birds in “galopigas island” (I wonder why I
remember that name so well). So anyways there was this one video of a purple
flower blooming right from the bud to full bloom and I thought wow! I would so
that someday. And of course I completely forgot about it right away :D.
Idle Brain is no longer the devils workshop!
And soo.. 9 years later, I find myself jobless
on a weekend (well not literally jobless). Trying to escape from my
oh-so-not-happy-thoughts, I suddenly realized that I had been staring at a
flower too long with my eyes out of focus – and OMG the flower had started
blooming, I could see its little petals unfurling right in front of my eyes and
BAM!! The encyclopedia flower blooming video suddenly popped up into my head
and then another neuron said time lapse video (outta nowhere). And well.. what
was I waiting for?.. I dashed into my room, got my camera and a Tripod, all too
excited to start my “first ever timelapse video” , a wish which has been
lurking around the corner of my head since 9 years(I wonder how brain works!).
And boy! Was that Easy!!(Sarcasm) Read on.. I will be giving few pointers in
the end for shooting timelapse video.
Out of Focus:
And so it had begun. I set up the tripod, fit
the camera onto it and was clicking away every 10 to 20 seconds for half hour,
only to realize in the end that the camera was not on “macro” and the flower
was completely out of focus. Damn! Now I had to wait for another weekend
- the flower only starts blooming from 4 pm to 6 pm and I was always gonna be
in office at that time during the weekdays. Well, there wasn’t much I could do
other than wait for the next weekend. Attempt1 unsuccessful!
Shake it Baby
The next weekend had arrived and with it,
arrived my attemp2. This time I was very careful abt the camera set in the
right mode and started clicking away.. so sure that I would finish it this
weekend. And well.. bad luck strikes again and I tripped over the tripod, the
camera position had gone haywire and my timelapse video remained unfinished. No
worries, I can still try it out the next weekend rt?!
Wind - Thou heartless Bitch
Weekend with attempt3 has started. This time i
made sure the camera mode was macros and my feet weren’t anywhere near the
tripod, but the wind started playing the villain. With every whoosh, the flower
moved outta its default position. Attempt3 gone to dogs. As always, I consoled
myself with the though - next weekend baby!
Battery OVER
Attempt4: battery gave up on me halfway through
the blooming. I frantically searched for a way to charge the camera when its
connected to laptop, but couldn’t find one. I was getting frustrated now.
Helpless.. having to wait for another weekend. I put the batteries in the
charger and plugged em in all through the week in the store room so that no1
would disturb it.
Battery Trolled
Well, weekend 5 came with calm sky and no wind
yayy!! But bad news was just waiting around the corner- when I went into the
store room to get my batteries, the plug had come loose and the lil yellow
light that says “charging” was off. God knows when it had come loose, I hadn’t
checked it the whole week. But then again, it was blinking when I had put in
for charging, so lets hope for the best and well.. the universe seems to be
conspiring against me and in no time the display on the camera starts to blink
away the “low battery” signal. And suddenly it occurred to me, why don’t I
switch the camera off in that 10 to 20 seconds gap when im not clicking the
photo. And it worked!! Battery trolled! Oh yeah!! And though I had finished the
full flower blooming, I was still not yet satisfied with the video. I was ready
for the final attempt and I waited for the last weekend..
Triumph
Finally attempt6 has lived up to my
expectations. I used photolapse to stich the photos into a video and the
surprising part is that I could use the half done video from all my previous
attempts to make full fledged one–and it turned out better since it had
the flower blooming from different angles. Here’s the link. Trust me – There is
no such thing as Time Waste, Everything u do WILL someday come in handy!
Tips for TimeLapse Photography
- Choose your subject such that 60% of the frame is
static and only 40%(even less is better) is moving.
- Use a software for timelapse photography which takes
snapshots by remote capture :P (which i found out later)
- Avoid taking outdoor snapshots for long as the sunlight
changes and the video would become flashy
- Use YouTube-stabilizer for the video
- it does wonders.
- Try and confine your video to a closed room with
uniform lighting and not much wind throughout the video
Where there is a will, there is a way through all six attempts. Awesome :)
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