South Point – Hawaiian Time-Lapse: Production Blog Pt. 2

Lance Page · January 26, 2012 · Production Blog · 3 comments

Channelling the excitement and success of Portland Nights I decided to infuse my annual winter vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii with an extremely condensed and challenging time-lapse production. The Big Island is where I was born and raised and as a Videographer and Time-Lapse Photographer, I owe much of my inspiration to the beauty and diversity of the Island. And diversity is the key word. Not many other places in the world allow one to hang out in the snow at above 13,000 feet and then go surfing in 80 degree weather a couple hours later. South Point – Hawaiian Time-Lapse is an expression of diversity, however, the video doesn’t focus on all the different weather patterns and landscapes of the island, it zeros in on one incredible location, South Point. It might come as a surprise to many people that there are no palm trees in this video, the weather is often ominous and dark and the wind and rain come through like a freight train just about daily.

My brother Troy and I spent a total of five days at South Point over the course of two different camping trips. We worked around the clock using two DSLRs, a tracking rig, a telescope head and a grip of various other gear that we hauled in the back of our rental truck. Time-lapse was the mission. We produced around 33 clips and a large majority of them made the cut. We hope you enjoy and please, if you like what you see and hear, share it with your friends and family.

Be sure to check out our other two photo blogs documenting our production:

Click here to view Part One: The Boys and Their Toys

Click here to view Part Three: Flash Storms and Long Exposures

Part Two: Challenging Shots

Time-lapse on the top of Green Sands.

Time-lapse on the top of Green Sands.
The wind was one of our constant challenges throughout the trip. Here at the top of Green Sands Beach, the wind was whipping dirt in my eyes and trying to blow every piece of equipment I handled directly off the cliff. After finally getting everything set up I succeeded in executing a tracking, panning and tilting motion controlled time-lapse of the beaches enormous cinder cone wall.

Shooting time-lapse in the lava rock cave

Shooting time-lapse in the lava rock cave
Another precarious set up, the hardest part was safely getting all the equipment down into this cave of lava rock to time-lapse the surging ocean. I was slightly worried about the tide rising in combination with the sets rolling in but it worked out flawlessly.

Improvising with our telescope mount

Improvising with our telescope mountAbout halfway through the shoot the telescope head began to malfunction and we lost the ability to pan our shot. After over an hour of troubleshooting we decided to improvise by turning the entire track on its side in order to transform the tilt function into a pan. The result was a success.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for checking out our production photo blogs! Check back soon for more updates on upcoming projects.

-Lp-

3 Comments:
  1. I have been looking at purchasing that particular unit from Dynamic Perception. This timelapse really displays how much the additional motion adds. Beautiful work…and in a beautiful location.

    Jim · February 07, 2012

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