I'm pleased to finally release this years Cole Classic time-lapse tilt-shift video. Thanks to Danny Irvine for helping me out on this one, between us we managed to get some interesting perspectives and sequences. Danny drove down from the Central Coast to meet me at 5.30am, quite an achievement considering I struggled to roll out my bed and down the stairs. We headed into Manly and proceeded to shoot for the next 4 hours.

Please show your love and don't forget to hit the Facebook like button.

This short video is made up of over 2000 still images shot at intervals of 1 second. Each frame was then 'tilted' or selectively blurred to give it that interesting miniature look and played back at 10fps to speed it all up. If you would like to learn how I achieved this effect I will be releasing an eBook including video tutorials by the end of March. Please subscribe to my newsletter, or become a Facebook fan for updates regarding its release. Alternatively book in for a two hour private photography lesson and mention you would like to learn time lapse and pick it up for free.

The tilt-shift time-lapse eBook includes video and written tutorials on equipment, image capture, camera setup, through to processing and exporting video in Photoshop.

For information on Australia's largest Ocean swim check out the Cole Classic website....see you next year!

I'm pleased to share a short film I produced of last weekends Cole Classic, Australia's biggest ocean swim taking place in Manly, Sydney. This film comprises of a few thousand still images, one taken every second using a stills camera (Canon 5D MkII). For more information on the techniques used in this short film please subscribe to this blog for email updates. I plan to release an ebook in the coming weeks and will share lots of other tips in future blog posts, stay tuned.

Cole Classic, Manly from Lee Duguid.

Comments are more than welcome, thanks for stopping by.

Update:
So I've got permission to shoot this weekends Cole Classic Australia's largest ocean swim. I pick up my media pass at 7am from Shelly Beach, now all I need is somewhere to shoot from. Emails to local estate agents have not produced anything, Manly Council are dragging their heals and I'm running out of time, can anyone help?

I shot some more time lapse footage last weekend to test out the new camera and more settings. I figure a frame every 1 second should be perfect, after all it's as fast as my camera remote will allow. I'll post more about that in the coming days, plus some footage.

By the end of this (blog? life? paragraph?) I hope to produce a nice, arty video filmed in and around Manly, Sydney....where I call home. I'm doing this for love, I've seen many great tilt shift videos and thought why not do one of Manly. No idea what a tilt shift video is? Below is my first ever, shot in New Zealand.

Port of Napier, New Zealand from Lee Duguid.

Not bad huh (well I think so). I made some mistakes which hopefully I have learnt from.

Note to self:
1. Lock the focus, auto-focus is bad mmmk!
2. Only use M, not Av, Tv or Auto.
3. Shoot RAW or set the white balance

Here are some shots I took earlier last year when I went through my last time lapse phase. I'm not going to use them but I'm posting them to generate some interest and to show you the sort of thing I plan to make. Again I made some mistakes.

Manly, Sydney from Lee Duguid.

Mistakes made:
1. Frame rate too slow, either take more frequent photos or drag the shutter speed - people appear in one frame and not the next.

So onto the plan.

What am I going to shoot?
I want to show all aspects of Manly, the beach, the ferry, the people, the lifestyle, the buzz, the nature, the beauty, everything that I can fit into a short film :).

Where will I shoot?
I have numerous locations planned, many I will need to get permission for as I will try and cover multiple angles shooting from above generally. If you know someone that lives in a high rise that has roof top access around Manly PLEASE get in touch. Here are some of the locations I'm looking at:

Next step is to get one or two more photographers on board to help shoot from different angles (need walkie talkies) and get permission from property managers, property owners, and Manly council (sigh!).