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Thorsten Westheider's picture

Ancient Dream

The Externsteine, Germany have been my favorite subject for some time now, but I had never caught an actual beautiful sunset. One reason is, that this tourist attraction is surrounded by the Teutoburg Forest and the sun doesn't easily get to light the base of the clouds from below.

When I went there 2 days ago, however, it finally happened. I was recording a timelapse video when the clouds turned orange, little by little. A few minutes later it was all over again. I was left with a sense of awe and 986 frames on my memory card - recorded in almost one and a half hour.

It was clear to me right then and there, that I would not only make the video, but pick one of the frames for a still as well. This is it.

The timelapse video can be found here, but please make sure you turned the volume up before pressing the play button.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0AO5Qcas0g

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5 Comments

Very good Thorsten. I must have a go at timelapse one day. My dad first introduced me to the idea one day when he did a timelapse of clouds over our backyard on an 8mm movie camera. It was very good. Nice still image also.

Thanks Geoff! I recommend giving it a shot, clouds, melting snow, anything that changes so slowly that we barely notice it. However, you also need to find the music to match the mood in the video and if you do, the result is greater than the sum of its parts.

Very nice picture. The sky is believable for once (refering to all the over post-processors out there) and you have a very nice reflection. The branches are a bit much, and I'd crop out the big tree on the left but yeah, you got your shot, definitely a keeper. The way the clouds all branch out from the peak is great. Perseverance pays off.

Thank you Nick! You're right about the branches. I already tried to cut down on those as you can see if you compare the thumbnail from the video to the still. I'd like to keep the aspect ratio so I'm in a bit of a fix here, because I'd get too close to the reflection if I cropped. Maybe I'll fire up Photoshop once more, not sure yet.

There's a blog post on this time-lapse video now, for those interested: https://westheider.com/index.php/2018/10/14/986-photographs-32-seconds-o...