Ants


Just a morning exercise to wake up the mind. This morning I saw these little guys working hard and I couldn't resist getting them on camera.


San Pedro de Lloc


After a long, unplanned — yet welcomed — break from work; I'm finally getting back on the saddle and I bring with me a new time lapse video. This time, from the very land that saw me grow up, San Pedro de Lloc — [That's in Peru](https://www.google.com/maps/place/San+Pedro+de+Lloc/@-7.4208997,-79.5021343,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x904d4ee60ea7ea8d:0x3b6fba0e805d6306)!

This work is a collaboration with [Eduardo Isla Hernández](http://www.youtube.com/eduardoislah), an old friend of mine, with whom I spent the last few days running around the town in an effort to finish the project in time.

Just an awesome, quick and dirty, yet-not-so-dirty, mashup at 1440p of some of the places around town. I hope you enjoy it!

___

Después de una larga pero muy bienvenida vacación, finalmente estoy volviendo a mi ritmo de trabajo y traigo conmigo un nuevo video en _time lapse_. Esta vez, de la misma tierra que me vio crecer, San Pedro de Lloc— ¡[En Perú](https://www.google.com/maps/place/San+Pedro+de+Lloc/@-7.4208997,-79.5021343,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x904d4ee60ea7ea8d:0x3b6fba0e805d6306)!

Este trabajo es una colaboración con [Eduardo Isla Hernández](http://www.youtube.com/eduardoislah), un viejo amigo mío, con quien pasé los últimos días corriendo por toda la ciudad en un esfuerzo por terminar el proyecto a tiempo.

Simplemente una rápida pero espectacular, mezcla de imágenes a 1440 pixels de algunos de los lugares llamativos de San Pedro de Lloc. ¡Espero les guste!

## Behind the scenes

### sp-001

[![sp-001](/content/images/posts/sp-001.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-001.jpg)

### sp-002

[![sp-002](/content/images/posts/sp-002_1.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-002_1.jpg)

### sp-003

[![sp-003](/content/images/posts/sp-003.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-003.jpg)

View of the Ficus trees at the Centenario avenue.

### sp-004

[![sp-004](/content/images/posts/sp-004.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-004.jpg)

Eduardo Isla saying “Hi!”

### sp-005

[![sp-005](/content/images/posts/sp-005.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-005.jpg)

### sp-006

[![sp-006](/content/images/posts/sp-006.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-006.jpg)

### sp-007

[![sp-007](/content/images/posts/sp-007.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-007.jpg)

### sp-008

[![sp-008](/content/images/posts/sp-008.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-008.jpg)

### sp-009

[![sp-009](/content/images/posts/sp-009.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-009.jpg)

A friendly passerby greeting us.

### sp-010

[![sp-010](/content/images/posts/sp-010.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-010.jpg)

Selfie time!

### Taking a Bite!

[![Taking a Bite!](/content/images/posts/sp-000.jpg)](/content/images/posts/sp-000.jpg)

Perhaps a little too revealing but I couldn't resist uploading this.

Time lapse of Baltimore City, shot on the last day of the year with Canon 450D and an 8mm lens.

Baltimore Time Lapse


This time I did have an intervalometer with me, unfortunately, the battery died relatively soon which was a huge disappointment.

Although the music doesn't fit the soft movement of the clouds I think it fits the rush of a city. Maybe for my next work I'll try to separate those ideas.

So, I decided to do another road trip. This time, I headed West. I wanted it to be spontaneous, just like my last trip, but I was more prepared for it. This time I searched for places near Maryland that seemed suitable for a nice get away. After a few minutes of looking through Google Maps, I noticed that Virginia had this great forest area and so I headed there.

All Nighter Douthat State Park


To continue the tradition. I left my house around 2am, I packed what I thought was essential, cameras, tripod, film, batteries – or so I thought as I left the backup battery charging, snacks, drinks, extra clothes, a knife – ’cuz you know, I may have to fight a bear and obviously, a 3 in. blade will save my life, etc. After a couple stops, a red bull, lots of rock from the local stations, I arrived there around 6 a.m., right on time for the sunrise. I looked around and found Douthat State Park, in Williamsville, which happened to have a nice open area in front of a lake.

Now, I recently had become interested in time lapse photography and I wanted it to try it out. At home, I was able to take pictures in succession thanks to a software I found. But for the trip I needed an intervalometer. I tried to build one out of a TI-84+ calculator, unfortunately the instructions I found were not compatible with it, so I had almost given up on doing a time lapse. However, when I got there, I decided to do it even if I had to take the pictures manually. And... I kinda did. I made the mistake of changing the time exposure often, which resulted in inconsistency between pictures. Some were too dark, others too bright, etc. Thus, lots of frames had to be trashed and I had to do a lot of color correction to achieve somewhat smooth transitions. I started by taking pictures with long exposures, using the camera in continuous shooting mode, which allowed me to leave it unattended for a while. As the day got clearer, I had to reduce the exposure time, until it became too fast to have it on all the time. So I started doing it manually...

Unfortunately... it was November. I was freezing. And although I took some extra clothes with me, I packed really fast and not enough. This, in combination with the lack of my backup battery, made me cut the trip short. Which, in a way, was good as I was able to get back home right on time for Thanksgiving dinner.

I started heading back around 9 a.m. but very quickly I started feeling the effects of the all nighter. After drifting slightly to the side of the road I decided to take a nap for a bit. I had no idea where I had just stopped, I saw a restaurant with a parking lot and lot of people around so that was good enough. Then I woke up, walked in the first place with food, and kept on driving.

The music on the radio was just as good as the night before, Rage Against The Machine, Marilyn Manson, Alice In Chains, Nirvana, an electronic version of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker... It was surprisingly good. I continued my journey enjoying the music, the open road, and the smell of nature, or possibly skunk – on a side note, I discovered that my car's speed limit is 115MPH. I was a bit disappointed and excited at the same time. Eventually I got home. Right on time to take a shower before seeing my family and having a great Thanksgiving dinner/lunch/next day's breakfast.

Carlos Ballena

Time-Lapse Posts

Ants

San Pedro de Lloc

Baltimore Time Lapse

All Nighter Douthat State Park