How to Take 10 Minutes on Vacation to Create a Brilliant Timelapse

by Barrett

I captured a timelapse video of Barred Island in Maine while the tide lowered, revealing a narrow strip of sand and an entry point.

Look, I knew I wasn’t fooling my family. Not when we went on vacation to Maine, experienced an incredible hike in Acadia National Park, and took a break for lunch. Because then, I unzipped my backpack and didn’t take out my sandwich. That sight is an easy tell by now.

Instead, I pulled out a compact tripod and my DJI Osmo Pocket camera which I’ve been using to create timelapse videos for the better part of the past year.

My wife and ten-year-old son have come to expect that I’m going to try to quickly capture a timelapse shot in moments like this.

Ten Minutes on Top of your World
Lunch on the top of a hiking summit a thousand feet up usually happens pretty fast. There isn’t time to capture hours of a changing landscape. Not when I’m primarily there to enjoy it with my family.

But carving out ten minutes? Yes, my family can handle that.

Capturing a video frame at two-second intervals for ten minutes creates a nifty ten-second timelapse.

It’s enough.

Enough to allow me to feed my creative spirit, but not too much to be disruptive to the larger goals of our day.

Chasing Nature’s Relationship with Time
Snapping a photo isn’t a problem. We’re all used to pausing for someone who needs to take a few seconds to get a quick picture.

But timelapse shots are a different game, and those ten minutes can feel like an hour when it’s really time to resume a hiking trek. I actually take closer to fifteen minutes, because I also need to set up and break down my little tripod. (It’s a Manfrotto Element Small Aluminum Traveler Tripod. $93.84 on Amazon.)

I really appreciate my family’s flexibility as I’ve explored my little hobby capturing nature timelapses.

My Timelapse Videos from Maine
Last week, I shared my favorite photos from our Maine hiking trip.

And now, here are my timelapse clips from our fun adventure in Maine.

Thank you, DJI Osmo Pocket, Manfrotto tripod and my family for helping me to capture these beautiful moments.