Witness King Tide - Altona
Witness King Tide - High Tide
© James TroiToday was all about making a time lapse for the "Witness King Tides" for the Hobsons Bay Council. The aim of the project, which is going worldwide, is about bearing witness and creating a visual record of the rising seas.
In using the king tide photos as an allegory for these rising seas there is a hope to bring home the message of global warming and the loss of habitat that will come with it. For Altona's Polynesian community it is also an acknowledgement of the land that will be lost through climate change in the Polynesian region, where it is feared entire islands will be lost in the coming years.
Our camera club, Williamstown Camera Club, was commissioned to create the time lapse and take event photography. A few of us were granted full access to the Altona Surf Life Saving tower, usually off limits to non life saving personnel. We set up our cameras and we let them at it.
Starting at 10:15 am, the bottom of the low tide, and shooting all they way through until 5:10 pm, the peak of high tide for the day. We had to stay on-hand to ensure the cameras operated as expected, were kept stocked with memory cards and power. We also had to ensure that rain wouldn't impact the task, which it almost did.
In all, we had four cameras going. Ray, Cathy and my DSLRs and my GoPro. They were on tripods on the balcony of the Surf Life Saving tower looking toward Altona Pier and the ocean beyond. The pier serving as an icon and an indicator of the tide's progress.
There were two small flurries of light rain, during which we stood over our cameras, waiting for the click before frantically wiping the lens clear in anticipation of the next shutter release.
Neil and Brian were in the pavilion shooting the more glamorous events of the day before everyone came out onto the beach for a group shot. They rounded out the day by heading off to locations in Altona Meadows and Williamstown to capture the tide against well known backdrops in these locations.
Altona Beach - Low Tide @ 10:15 am
Altona Beach - High Tide @ 5:10 pm
It was a long day, but a fun day, shared with people from the camera club. Below you can see my first edits, the first just 16 seconds was taken with the DSLR shooting one shot per minute. The second my GoPro shooting a shot every 10 seconds.