Rare Lenticular Clouds Phenomenon Captured with Timelapse Photography

Photography Tips  •  Time-lapse Photography

Most photographers shoot still photographs to capture precise moments in time. Timelapse photographers take hundreds or thousands of images at fixed intervals to portray the passage of time. The images are played back consecutively to condense hours into minutes or seconds. New Zealander Bevan Percival records surreal timelapse photography sequences in beautiful landscapes.

Watch his timelapse of lenticular clouds in the Rangipo Desert on the North Island Volcanic Plateau:

Percival used a Canon 5D Mark II and a Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly to shoot this video. Though you may not see such remarkable natural phenomena near your own home, you can get started with timelapse photography using just a few tools, most of which you probably already have. At minimum, the equipment necessary for timelapse photography includes:

• DSLR camera
• large memory card
• well-charged batteries
• tripod
• intervalometer

In its simplest form, timelapse photography is just a matter of stabilizing your camera and taking lots of images at even intervals. In reality, timelapse involves attention to many more facets such as calculating the length of the sequence, choosing an appropriate shutter speed, maintaining consistent exposure, using ND filters, compiling the images, and more. It’s an art that requires plenty of research, time, and practice to master.