Spring Mountains Time Lapse 7/1/25

​This is the first new destinationwest.org time lapse videos since 2023. The desert southwest has been stricken with severe drought, so it has been slim picking for clouds in the sky this summer. July 1st was the first time that anything remotely looking like monsoon season clouds appeared, so that was good enough reason to go uphill into the Spring Mountains to film the weather front passing through. 

During the lengthy 2 year lapse in time lapse videos my camera bag changed dramatically. Items that were added include:
• Sigma 8mm 3.2 180º Circular Fisheye
• Nikon AF 16mm 2.8D Diagonal Fisheye
• Nikon 50mm 1.8S

All three of these lenses are featured in this video. One clip was filmed with a ZMC 105mm 2.8. A Z6II and Z7II were attached to the lenses. Aperture Mode was used for the bright daylight session. Each scene was about 1 hour of filming and the interval was 8 seconds on both cameras. I prefer filming time lapse with two cameras. An ultra wide lens is attached to one camera and longer focal length lens is attached to the other. 

I definitely felt rusty when setting up the equipment and there was one item that I overlooked. I forgot about the 16:9 crop when using the time lapse video option. The crop definitely left the landscape on the thin side, but that is okay when clouds are the subject matter. 

On the downside, a 16:9 crop applied to a circular fisheye image is not a good thing and it happened twice before I realized the mistake. The final circular fisheye time lapse clip was filmed in interval mode, instead of 16:9 time lapse video mode. HDR bulk edit software was used to process 500 images and they were converted to video with software. The final circular fisheye lens scene is a full 360º image, which is the way it should be, 

Fisheye lenses add a nice effect for time lapse. Vintage fisheye lenses are relatively cheap to acquire and they do add panache. Diagonal fisheye lenses are fairly easy to use, while a circular fisheye will present some challenges. 

It takes some forethought when lining up a circular fisheye lens, because you will be working with a 180º field of view. Keeping the sun out of the frame, while keeping the tripod legs out of the picture at the same time is not always easy to do. This is especially true in summer afternoons when the sunlight is blazing. 

Since the sun travels toward the southwest, pointing the camera northeast will provide enough room to minimize the sun entering the field of view. There is no lens hood on a circular fisheye and sun flares can happen, so thinking of a suitable place to get a great northeast view will be necessary mid day. The west side of a mountain range is a good choice because the slopes face the sun and the camera will be pointed away from the bright light, even when it is high noon and the sun is overhead. 

Even with careful camera lens placement, the sun may still graze the circle of the fisheye image and cause a tiny sun star. This can be a desirable effect, but direct sunlight may cook the camera sensor, so it is best to minimize the urge to do so.