Hillsboro Inlet Florida Lighthouse Timelapse Video

Playing With Timelapse In The Dark

For much of the summer I have been shooting mostly daylight storm or weather related timelapses for a film project that I have been focused on for months. I also have been wanting to shoot more nightscape long-exposure sequences for some time now, and last night I took the time to setup my camera at a very cool location and let it roll.

The evening thunderstorms and rains had dissipated by 9pm, and the winds were going calm like they normally do in South Florida in early August. So, I stopped at one of my favorite locations along the coast in Broward County just south of Lighthouse Point. This is known as Hillsboro Inlet Park, a small park on the west side of the inlet that faces to the east. Here you have a great view of the Atlantic Ocean and the tall coconut palms surrounding the lighthouse. The waters were very smooth after all the rains and with the winds going light, so the scene was set for a cool timelapse.

The Quick Setup, Shoot and Mistake

There was enough boat and air traffic to add some interesting moving features besides the lighthouse, but not too much to distract from the beauty of the entire view. The sky was overcast with thin cirrus streaming quickly overhead as an upper-level trough moved offshore. After moving the tripod around a few times to get the shot I was looking for, I shot off a few sample exposures and locked it down. Then, I let it roll for about an 1 hour and 15 minutes while I worked on my iPhone.

This morning I woke up and went right into my office to look over the frames, and began to post-process the timelapse video. I noticed right away one big mistake I didn’t check for, and that was the dock I was setup on. You couldn’t tell just standing there, but it was slightly moving. It was very noticeable in the video as you can see the frame bounce around just a little. I’m not sure if this was from people walking by, or from the boat wakes. I clearly will have to re-shoot this, but I am pleased how it came it out even with the dock motion, and it was a nice test run of that location. I would love to have more cloud animation in that frame, so maybe next time I’ll have a more interesting sky to work with along with the lighthouse. I’ll keep you posted.