A Day in the Life of a Timelapse Photographer

Photography Tips  •  Time-lapse Photography

Joel Schat is a photographer on the move. He travels around the US to shoot timelapse landscapes of some of the most beautiful locations in the country. You can follow a day in the life of Schat in the video below as he explores the Grand Canyon. His setup is fascinating, and you can see the techniques he uses to get such precise and impressive timelapses:

Using his Canon 6D and a Canon 5D Mark II, Schat photographs his first timelapse using just a stationary tripod over a set length of time. He uses an intervalometer in order to maintain consistent lengths of time between photos. The intervalometer can be set to a certain time interval and then trigger the camera to shoot images at each interval.

Schat starts photographing before the sun even comes up.

In his last set of images, Schat uses a Dynamic Perception Stage Dolly in order to give a feeling of motion. The six-foot rail allows the camera to slide along it while capturing images at regular intervals. The final image does not do this time-lapse justice; it is the set of images that truly are impressive.

Schat sets up to photograph the sun setting.

The timelapse work continues after the sun goes down.

Schat often talks about how fortunate he feels to be able to make a living as a photographer on the road. He has traveled to over thirty locations near the West Coast and has no plans to stop anytime soon.

“I can hear my alarm going off, although I don’t want to acknowledge it as I was up shooting the Milky Way until around 2 am the night before, and am still very tired, running off around 4 hours of sleep. *hits snooze*”