You think you know, but you have no idea.

Posted on by Live & Learn

I’m trying to up my game. Expand the repertoire to include time lapse videos from still photos (like the shot of the cormorant up above from this morning).

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been watching Sawsan’s apprentice (aka Cara) set up the tripod, wrap its claws around the smartphone, level up the sight lines, take a deep breath… and hit the go button. And wait. And wait. And wait, somewhere between 2 to 2 1/2 hours until the sun is sufficiently up in the sky for the time lapse to catch the full end to end twilight to sunrise light show.

Cara can do it, repeatedly. Then any idiot can do this, right?

So I set off this morning. I’m solo, no production crew.

It’s 4:07 a.m., I repeat Cara’s time lapse set up sequence, take a take breath, and hit the GO button.

And I walk. And walk. And walk. I circle the park 3x taking photos, and keep a close eye on my camera gear so it doesn’t disappear.

Cloud cover is forecast to be heavy, and yet there is hope as the sky begins to clear in the line of my camera.

I walk back, pleased to see the camera video recording — all is as it is supposed to be.

It’s two hours in, and I’m practically giddy. This is going to work! And this being Sunday morning, the Big Guy upstairs starts clearing away the cloud cover — this time lapse will be NatGeo quality.

I pace. And pace. 2 1/2 bloody hours of waiting for a 17 sec time lapse video. Better be better than Good. The anticipation — Christmas Eve for a toddler.

Minutes away now.

Time’s up.

I reach for the camera, gently press stop, tuck away the tripod, and sit on the breakwall to watch. Why are your hands shaking?

I hit GO.

The video plays. Dark. Dark. Dark. Dark. Dark. Dark. Dark. Dark.

20 seconds pass and the video still shows frames from early morning. Giddiness turns to darkness.

No!

No!

No!

I failed to hit the time lapse button — I failed to follow the entire Cara time lapse set up sequence — so instead of recording a 20 sec video, I recorded the entire 2 1/2 hour event.

There has to be an app to convert a 2 1/2 hr. video to 20 sec time lapse. Has to be. I google it — there’s a solution or two to fix this. I exhale and head home. A fix is on the way.

  • I try to upload the file from my smartphone to Google Photos. (The 48G file exceeds the 10G file limit. I learned this after 1 hour of waiting.)
  • I try to download the file from my smartphone to an external drive. This takes 30 minutes, only to find that the drive isn’t compatible with my PC.
  • I try to upload the file to Google Drive. File appears to be too large to upload. I learn this after 30 minutes.
  • I try to upload the file to Dropbox from my smartphone. It takes! But it takes over an hour.
  • Now with the file in Dropbox, I have to download the file to my PC (20 minutes) and then upload it to FinalCut Pro to speed up the 2.5 hour video. (This work takes over an hour, as I’m an apprentice on Final Cut Pro.)

So, that’s IT. Done. And Done.

It took over 8 HOURS to produce this 20 SECOND VIDEO.

Any idiot CAN do it!

Enjoy!

Notes:

  • Post title: You think you know, but you have no idea. — Diary (MTV, 2000-2014)
  • DK Photo of Cormorant @ 6:24 am this morning. July 21 2024.
  • More photos from this morning’s LONG walk here and moon shot here.

52 thoughts on “You think you know, but you have no idea.”

  1. First things first, amazing amazing time-lapse.

    Your level of patience, is scary. If you’re a type A + I need a pint of your blood. I have zero patience in me. Negative actually.

    Last but not least, Cara is not my apprentice. She’s a league of her own. And she showed up at just the perfect time. Makes one Believe!

        1. There’s something to that..all of a sudden I feel imposing and mighty (rare at 4’1”). It’s definitely because , catching a ride with these two formidable women!

          4. If anything, I ride your wake, Mimi
            And this is something because I rarely catch the ride of others.
            You are the Queen.

          5. I’ve never been regal – or royal – this is a first!! And honestly, your spectrum is so beautiful and savvy and multifaceted that I’m just glad to be in your orbit!

  2. Hey, that was awesome
    What I cannot grasp (speaking of Any idiot can do it) is How you‘d put a camera on ‚time lapse mode‘. You can‘t possibly compress 2.5hrs worth of film to 20“ IN/ON the camera…. you have to make the film first, right? Please do explain, and pls do it in simple words, as you have a photographic idiot in front of you.
    I used to watch a lot of time lapse vids, on the development of, let‘s say, a butterfly, a flower from seed to bloom to dying, cloud wanderings etc. Would like to be able to do that.
    Could have told you that 48GB is wahaaaayyyy too much for any of ‚our‘ computers to work with. But you didn‘t ask!

      1. My theory is that you were looking through the gaps in the fence when you were listening to Cara’s instructions. Had the fence not been there, you would not have made this mistake. 🙂

        I suggest that when appropriate (which I believe is often), we disregard gender, and just accept that we are all imperfect humans, and we are all in this imperfect world together!

        1. (I should note that I am rereading Andy Puddicom’s “Headspace book” at present, and an important aspect of mindfulness, and meditation is to accept that we are all human, and all share the same experiences.) Andy calls this: “The Shared Human Experience”.

          So any missiles that you fire at me about fences… Will immediately be redirected to Andy! 🙂

  4. Ok at some point I would have to raise the white flag in surrender. Props to you for your insistence…I can’t wait to see more than 20 seconds…😉

      1. I would have done EXACTLY what you did DK. We have the same character trait in this regard. I would have battled through managing that massive file until I obtained the desired result.

        This character trait (curse?) by the way, is required if you are going to write computer software. Because it may take you days to find the missing “;” which is preventing your code from working! 🙂

        Well done!

  5. OH…..I think I know… and actually have EVERY idea.

    Good for you for keeping with it, and trying not to quit. I was rooting for you 200 miles away. It does sound a little like YOU might be the apprentiche. Don’t worry, I am a very supportive and empathetic teacher. I’ve got you.

    Solid timelapse.

  6. Thank you, Mimi.
    Seriously though, I haven’t met that many individuals that I would bow to. You’re a first.
    I’ll add multifaceted to my “About” description.
    Blow In, Multifaceted.
    Or Multifaceted Blow In.
    🩷

  8. The way of spirit is rife with multilingual diversions. Glad you have the chutzpah and bawbag for it.

  9. OH…..I think I know… and actually have EVERY idea. 

    Good for you for keeping with it, and trying not to quit. I was rooting for you 200 miles away. It does sound a little like YOU might be the apprentiche. Don’t worry, I am a very supportive and empathetic teacher. I’ve got you.

    Solid timelapse. 

    Not anonymous this time. Its me.

  12. How many times have I said after reading an article or watching a video, oh any old idiot could do that, only to find out that this old idiot couldn’t. 04h00 is definitely a tad early, so I’ve already lost a point there. And then the brain fog drops and I can’t do a bloody thing. Ah well. I generally leave it for a couple of weeks and come back to it. Not only am I an idiot, but I’m stubborn too!

  13. Soooo beautiful – you’ve inspired me again. Buuuut, I’ll make sure I get the settings right first coz there ain’t no way my ADHD will let me go through 8 hours of pain to do this!

    1. Laughing. I almost had another disaster today. I put the tripod clamp on my smartphone and clamped down on the power button. Phone goes dark. Didn’t know what happened. Thankfully I care 2 phones (don’t ask why) and was able to fire it up and do it the right way this time. It takes patience Ken (that wish I lack). Good luck!

      2. I would suggest that you have “selective patience” Dave. If you care enough (as you did with this Time-lapse video), then you battle until you win or collapse :-). And if you collapse, you fall into a coma for a while… And then, when you return to consciousness, you continue to battle! (At least that’s what I do… Because I’m crazy!)

  15. Bottom line:
    WELL DONE DK!
    FABULOUS VIDEO!

    I would still be working on the problem if I had done this, because I have not learned anything about the cloud yet.

    PS: two phones? OMG! There must be a story there that I would love to hear 🙂

    PPS: You transferred the massive file to a PC?! A PC that actually runs windows?
    (Or was that a typo… If you have a PC, I should go directly to the ER because I think my brain just caught fire! 🙂 )

    1. Thanks Paul! I said i had brought 2 phones. I didn’t say I owned ONLY 2 phones. Let’s leave it at that for now! :). I used PC as a sweeping reference to all computers. Downloaded it to MAC!

        1. I tried a laptop PC earlier in the year. Some real advantages to Windows (including full baked in accessories and utilities that you have to buy from third parties for MAC). But lack of integration to iPhone and iPad and Apple Watch and painful bloated system seemingly updating all the time, said it wasn’t worth the money or the time to learn a new system.

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