Time Lapse On the Go

Intro by Skip Cohen

This is the last "installment" in Mark's Corner for his week off from work to having fun in photography. For so many of us, photography is helping keep our sanity during the downtime. Mark's been having fun all week long with a camera in his hands, not for clients, but his own enjoyment. And considering my role with Platypod, it's fun to see how a Platypod Max was Mark's perfect hiking companion. 

Check out more of Mark's work by stopping by his website and blogs. As a member of the LUMIX team at Panasonic, you'll find a lot of solid content on making the most of LUMIX cameras.  If you're on Facebook, wander over to the Lumix Photographers Community. With over 9,000 members, artists from all over the world are always sharing great images and creative ideas to help you build your skillset and vision.
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Time Lapse from Mark Toal on Vimeo.

by Mark Toal

​Today I had to get out of the house. The sun came out after a rainy, cool morning. I could hear power boats on the Willamette River near where I live just south of Portland, Oregon. Huge clouds were rolling across the sky, perfect for a time lapse video.  I knew exactly where I could get a great view of the sky and the widest part of the river.
 
I own about four tripods, but I’ve never liked using one. A while ago Platypod sent me one of their "tripods." I’ve been using it where I need to hold the camera steady, in this case for a 30-minute time lapse. As you can see it’s not a traditional tripod, but instead a very small plate with adjustable legs.
 
I carry a Panasonic camcorder with me because it’s very quick and easy to set up for time-lapse videos when I’m out hiking. As you can see in the photo, I attached the Camcorder to the Platypod, set it on a light post to shoot an image every second. After 30 minutes I turned off the camera, put the whole set-up in my sling bag and went home. 

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As the Camcorder recorded the time-lapse, I walked around the park taking photos with my Lumix S1. I love setting the S1 to a 2:1 size ratio to give me a panoramic looking scene that you see in this image.
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