Many thanks to WhiteRabbit
for the ID here.
After a month of growing the spike, my oncidium intergenic is finally in full bloom.
I tried to make my first timelapse video of the spike growing here:
Wilsonara Pacific Perspective Time-Lapse - YouTube
It's far from perfect, but I am quite pleased with the results as a first attempt. Lessons learned from the experience include:
- Staking up the spike early on will prevent it drifting down over the field of view, or needing to rotate the photos to keep the spike in alignment
- Even when the buds don't look like they're developing much... they can still be moving wildly around in relation to the stem
- It can be difficult to predict which direction blooms will end up facing when they finally open
- I should try to keep the background completely free of clutter to avoid random items moving in and out of the scene
- when the flowers do begin to open, they can unfold over the course of only a couple of hours (and often inconveniently early in the morning)
- If I try this again, I will be taking pictures with higher frequency
If anyone has any more tips on how to make a more polished looking timelapse of orchids, I'd love to hear suggestions. I do realize that the main thing I'd need is an automated shutter, but I'm trying to avoid purchasing any more equipment at the moment. Maybe in the future.
In the meantime, here are some more still photos of the blooms. The flowers are fragrant and 2.5" across on a foot-long spike. It's a stunted blooming, but the orchid is recovering from massive root loss, and I wasn't expecting any flowers this season at all. One of the things that really struck out at me about this orchid, is how different the flowers look based on the lighting used in the photograph.
Wilsonara Pacific Perspective photos and timelapse
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