curious about stop-motion photography...

i'm just wondering what is needed to do a proper stop-motion video (if that's even what it's called)? does anyone have any experience with this? i've got good cameras here and a laptop, but i'm not sure how to go about it... i live right on a tidel river in southwest england and the tides are huge right now! i'd love to capture it! any advice??

Technically what you're looking for is info on 'time lapse' photography, which I point out not to be a know-it-all jerk, but to help with your future search results.

Essentially, you need something to serve as an intervalometer for your camera. Either a tool like the Nikon MC-36 Remote or software for your computer. Since you have the laptop, you might be able to find a cheaper software solution via the google.

Vincent LaForet, fairly well known for his tilt-shift and other time laps videos, uses the Canon version of the Nikon remote I linked above. B&H has it for $149.95 right now. The Nikon remote is around the same price.

thanks for the info and the "time lapse" correction. i'll check out that link now. last night the river came right up to our road (extremely high tide), but i'd like to catch it on an average day from empty to full...
thanks man!

Sorry I don't have any more info on software. Looking forward to seeing the result if you manage to work it out!

i'll show it off if i'm not too embarressed... thanks again for the direction!

I just surfed towards this thread - here's some more info that may be useful to someone, somewhere:

Off-brand Intervalometers can be found quite cheaply via amazon etc., for as little as 25 Eur/$30. You then need a program to dump your photos into - I use mpeg streamclip, for no particular reason other than it was recommended to me and it's free. There are plenty of options out there.

Time lapse can be lots of fun, but be prepared to be pretty bored during the actual shooting process. Here's a fun one I put together over the course of three days in Sarajevo last summer:
http://vimeo.com/25925630

Cheers!

Sorry if this is a touch late, but I have Nikon D200 and the option for time lapse is right inside my settings. Depending on the type of camera you have it could very well be buried in the menu somewhere. I'd either look around in there or search for a user manual online. Hope I helped.