Arisen

Early morning around 5:30AM, we woke up to a snippy weather at Kodachadri with stormy breeze challenging the mighty hillocks and tall trees with powerful gusts. We refreshed ourselves and ready to start to Sunrise point which requires a hike of 800m along narrow ridge. Since the SUN was not yet out, we had to bank upon torch light to follow the trail properly. Half way along the hike, the trail gets very narrow and gusty winds tend to push us down to the valley. After cautiously passing along this path, we reached the Sunrise point. The powerful wind was pushing us very hard and cold weather requires everyone to cover body with winter wear.

The time was 6:50AM. We were foreseeing a dazzling sunrise in few moments shimmering the beautiful Sharavati river back waters. I had kept camera for sunrise timelapse and turned out be nice too ;-). Few minutes later, there goes the initial appearance of shy Sun piercing through clouds at the distant horizon sparkling the Sharavati river backwaters with orange spectacle. We cheered with enthusiasm and welcomed the Sun of the day :-). Of-course, the red carpet for the Sun's arrival was laid by Sun itself ;-). After few more minutes, the Sun was completely "Arisen" and it was time to take the picture of blazing Sun of golden hour! Here is the picture of "Arisen" Sun. Later on we stayed for some more time to garner Vitamin D.

ARISEN SUN!

Not to miss our lovely guide to Sunrise view point :D. He was little bit ahead of us and followed the trail providing us direction. Whenever we stopped to rest, he also rested and as we moved on, he was guiding us :-). For some more time, he enjoyed the Vitamin D before reaching base camp!

OUR GUIDE :-)

Do here magnificent music "Arisen" by British musician Laurence Rapaccioli codenamed Arksun on this occasion flavored with wonderful breakdown!

Arksun - Arisen (Original mix): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIA2fFiy9ac


If you wish to hear only breakdown, hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKf7r6j5bwc

Also do not miss the beautiful chilldown remix of Magdelyana of the same

Arksun - Arisen (magdelyana Chill mix): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxQi3RO_znU

Sunset and Sunrise at Kodachadri Peak - A short timelapse

Here is one more timelapse from Kodachadri Peak. This is 12th timelapse video in my youtube channel :-).

It was 5:30PM on bright Saturday when we reached Kodachadri peak after trek from Santosh hotel for about 5kms. We were sweating vigorously following long hike. After seeking blessings of Lord Shiva at Sarvajna Peetha, it was time to rest on one of the rocks awaiting sunset. In between casual chat, Rajesh pestered me to start a timelapse. I was bit lethargic but he was persistent :D. Finally, I started the intervalometer for 2images a minute. As a result it turned out to be wonderful fast setting sun ;-). Since there was an hour of time for complete sunset, I kept interval for 30s capture. I did not use manual mode since wanted to grab bright Sun always. The problem with Manual mode is it turns out quite darker gradually as sun loses intensity. As you know, the disadvantage of using Av is variation in lighting which can be corrected with software approaches. I did not carry tripod and consequently mounted camera on rocky surface for interval shots.

Next is sunrise timelapse. I realised a bit late there was only few time left for sunrise and hence tuned intervalometer to grab a shot per 10 second. The mode is Av mode due to said reason as mentioned above. Even this capture was based on Rajesh's input. I was bit skeptical that heavy breeze would shake camera which may result in out of frame pictures. However, the camera stood upright ;-). This time also I placed it on one of the rocks in sunrise point. Once Sun was arisen with golden colors, I could not resist and turned off intervalometer :-). The timelapse of Sunrise was achieved though ;-) however with less interval. Combining both the timelapses, here is a video. I thought of combining these with the already pending ones to form a bigger one. However, demand from boys and draining disk space forced me to compose the video and share. Hope you enjoy the same.

Settings:

I do not remember exactly. Both scenes were shot in Av mode. The video is rendered in KDENLIVE 1080p 25fps and 2pass encoding MPEG4/MP3.

Music: After lot of internal tussle, I settled for the Simon O Shine's musical brilliance - Your Distant World. Other options considered were excerpts from Sunset-Beautiful Life (Vol Deeman Remix) and SoundLift - Horizonte (Andy Blueman Intro mix). All of them matched well for video however could not resist the fabulous orchestral breakdown and eventually applied for the timelapse. It did fit too ;-).

Composing timelapses makes me exhilarated. Ever since I stumbled upon timelapse photography from internet sources, it has been one of my favorite hobbies. I enjoy composing timelapse despite requiring longer time. From my experience, timelapse requires persistence, perception, a bit of intuition and lot of patience more than camera techniques. To some extent few video editing techniques help a lot too! In order to bring up my mood (when I am down) and also since my disk space is exhausting at faster pace, I hope to upload more pending timelapses in coming days :-)

Ashutosh also pulled a wonderful timelapse and here it is. He has also some collection of star trail timelapse which he might share in his channel.

The Wondrous Aghanaashini River, Kumta, UttaraKannada District

The stretch from Mangalore to Goa is great place for drive as well as Konkan Railway journey. The region is spectacular during monsoon season painted with lush greenery, brimming rivulets and of-course torrential monsoon rains. Recently during my visit to Yana, I stopped one of those beautiful river along this stretch which is one and only Aghanaashini river of Kumta for 15 minutes. It is exhilarating to feel this magnificent river and has been one of my hotspots from past 3 years along Mangalore-Karwar belt. Its breath-taking landscape decorated with tiny boats, hills, coconut trees and blue water makes me stunned every time I visit. I did hire an auto to visit Yana however if I had my own arrangements, I would have driven to Divgi where we can enjoy the river basin closely. Also this river is flows along many beautiful waterfalls nearby Siddapur before reaching Kumta and merging with Arabian sea. I took some shots and videos for my archive. Enjoy the pictures and a short video compilation shot from National Highway. During next visit, I hope to grab some footages from Divgi region.

RIVER WITH BEAUTIFUL HILLOCKS

FROM MIDDLE OF BRIDGE

WEST SIDE CAPTURE

And a short video!