Precision Planning and Patience - Issue #10

Hello Explorer,

During the last week I have learned that insects are sometimes more difficult to work with than my previous experience indicated. The antlion larvae or Doodlebugs managed to evade the cameras for some very specific shots that is needed for the antlion video. In the video this week you will see a short time-lapse of the antlions digging their pits.

A time-lapse is a video that condenses a given time period to enable us to see change over time that we cannot observe due to the slow rate at which the changes occur.

The time-lapse of the Doodlebugs seemed very simple. Get some Doodlebugs, place them on the ground and take a time-lapse of them digging their pits. However, this was much more challenging than I first anticipated. The Doodlebugs seemed to be very shy and would only start digging their pits once the camera batteries run out, or if there was a power trip which turned off the Raspberry Pi time-lapse camera. To achieve the final time-lapse took six failed attempts over five days, and on the sixth day the seventh attempt to time-lapse the Doodlebugs was a success!

From this I have learned that patience is key and that even with perfect and proper planning for taking a time-lapse is always challenging, but when it all works together it is definitely worth it!

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But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. - James 1:4