Photographing a Timelapse by the Waal

Sunday 8 September 2024, 13:13 by Nando Harmsen | 2,485 views | 1 comment

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

I was looking for a place to create a beautiful Holy Grail timelapse. This means a timelapse from day to night. I found a spot by the Waal in Nijmegen. This is how I got started, along with the result of this timelapse session.

PhotoPills gives you options for planning properly.
The search began at home, using PhotoPills. It gave me a good idea of where I could stand to capture both a city's skyline and the sunset. I chose Nijmegen, as I didn't want to travel too far.

Checking the weather forecasts was the next step. Now, nothing is as unpredictable as the weather forecast, so it was a matter of waiting. Tuesday seemed to be the best day when I made an estimate four days in advance.

In the end, Monday showed that Tuesday wasn't a suitable time. But Monday itself could turn out to be a beautiful one. Rain had been forecast, but not at the time I wanted to get started.

There are the cameras, continuously taking photos at an interval.
So I was standing by the Waal at half seven on Monday evening, while the wind picked up and dark clouds rushed over my head. Every now and then a drop of rain fell, but most of it passed to the east of me.

There, by the Waal, with a view of Nijmegen's Waalkade, I got beautiful cloudscapes, a lovely sunset, and a wonderful transition from light to dark. This was the Holy Grail timelapse I had been hoping for. Perfect for the video course I was recording for Photofacts Academy.

I got caught in a small shower. Not much, but enough to bring out the shower caps. Not for myself, but for the cameras.
You'll learn how I got started, with all the details, in the course that is due to go live in September 2024. But it's nice to already get a glimpse of how I worked. You can see that in the video below, of course together with the result of the timelapse.

I've already mentioned the term Holy Grail timelapse a few times. If you don't know what it means, this is a timelapse where the exposure is continually adjusted. This compensates for the darkening in the evening, or the brightening in the morning.

The timelapse photography course will soon be available on Photofacts Academy. But you can of course already start experimenting yourself. Let my video inspire you. However, would you like to know more about the planning options in PhotoPills? I have a course about that too.

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