daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
こんばんは。How’s it going?
I’ve been fortunate to have been treated with some nice looking clouds these days! I am going a little nuts making the time-lapse videos too. Please check it out, and also visit my YouTube channel if you’d like to see more!
I hope you had a good day!
またね～
One of the aspects of drawing on the iPad that I love is the ability to select and adjust the positioning of facial elements. It’s really difficult for me to draw it right (or even get close) the first time. So I have to move eyes, noses, and chins around till they look right. And then I’ll have to step away for a bit, or maybe even a day or two, before looking at the sketch again with fresh eyes and then see if I got it “good enough” or need to work on it some more.
It’s a process that takes a long time overall, so I have several drawings going at once. It’s all a lot of fun though, and rather than being frustrated at not being able to draw it right the first time, I get a lot of satisfaction when I realize that the drawing has gotten even just a tiny bit better. Little improvements! ☺️
I hope you had a good day!
So pretty, aren’t they? 🥚
Recently I bought a new tripod to replace my compact Velbon tripod, and that inspired me to use it to take time-lapses of the fun clouds that are appearing in the skies lately. Over the past couple of days, I have figured out how to use my Fujifilm X100T as a cloud time-lapse rig to nice effect.
In the photo above, you can see the modest setup I have positioned by the window. It doesn’t look impressive, but it gets the job done for what I want to do. Take a look at the video below (a compilation of a few day’s worth of videos) and let me know what you think!
This simple rig consists of my Fujifilm X100T mounted on a Moman “Alpenstock” tripod, and powered with my Oprout 10,000mAh power bank.
I’ve found the Fujifilm X100T to be a great little camera for making time-lapse videos because it has a built-in intervalometer (timer), a built-in ND filter, and available electronic shutter. It seems like the externally-connected power bank doesn’t go down hardly at all (still at 4 lights) even after several thousand photos. It’s amazing.
There are a few limitations of the Fujifilm X100T, though. First, the intervalometer has a maximum number of 999 shots that it can take. However, it’s quick to start the sequence again – it’s literally just 5 presses of the OK button to cycle thru the options and start the timer again.
Another limitation is that you cannot keep the aperture stopped down in a fixed position. After each shot, the blades will reset to f2.0 before stopping down for the next shot. This can cause slight variances in exposure which will appear as flickering in the final video. Consequently, I have to shoot wide-open at f/2.0, which could be a problem of overexposing in bright situations.
But happily, that can be mitigated setting ISO to the lowest setting, turning on the built-in ND filter, switching to the electronic shutter which will allow you to shoot at up to 1/32,000 second exposure. And you can also just use a traditional ND filter as well if you have one.
Lastly, the 35mm equivalent focal length might be a little too tight for these kinds of time-lapses, but I suppose you could spend the money to buy the wide-angle lens attachment.
And I feel the need to add that you should be in Manual Focus mode. In the second sequence in the video, I left it set to Auto-focus, and several times the camera focused on the dirt that was on the window. Doh!
Anyways, I’m having a lot of fun creating these videos. As you can see in the movie above, I’ve learned how to put several clips together and also add music. Look out Hollywood, here I come! 😄
A nice bit of evening drama! ❤️☁️
