Accurate Timing of Long Exposures

[dan_smith]

Boy, I have tried all the methods mentioned above and all in the

answers before this. After all that, and after exhausting all the

funding possible in seventeen Federal Grants on how to tell time

accurately for long exposures(some Postal & some Pentagon grants), I

have come up with a foolproof way to do it.

I carry a VCR and portable power pack with me any time I think I may

have a long exposure to deal with. I then put in a tape of Rodney

King getting the tar beaten out of him. At 3 baton beats per second,

I am pretty good at timing the exposures. At least up to the 54 beat

mark. I will apply for a couple of law enforcement agency grants of

at least $50,000 each to see if I can figure out a way to play the

tape more than once without rewinding so I can count even longer.

 

<p>

 

If that doesn't work, and since I live in Utah, I can just use the

old Mormon method of counting... one'Polygamy, two'Polygamy, etc. It

should work fine at least until I get to 55, the number of wives ol

Brigham Young had. I guess then I could count the number of Polygs

living here in the State now, that will get me to at least 80,000 by

news reports. That would be a long exposure.

 

<p>

 

All these should be cheaper than buying a watch and a lot more fun

too.

[struan_gray]

Dan, you're making things too compicated. Why do you think the

VCR manufacturers put that blinking "12:00" on the front, if not for

the use of large format photographers? You can save yourself a

lot of weight by discarding the tape and just counting blinks.

 

<p>

 

If you're hiking a long way from the road you can even dispense

with the power supply. Simply throw the VCR into the air so that

it rises four feet above the point you release it. Catch it again at

the same point on the way down and exactly one second will

have passed - repeat as needed. Senior photographers who

lack the stamina or dexterity for this technique can always tie a

one meter length of string to the VCR and use it as a pendulum

bob, but local gravitational anomalies can make this less

accurate.