The following YouTube video shows two time lapse views of the sky over Fairfax County, Virginia USA during the afternoon on 18 September 2026. The camera was mounted on a tripod with the lens facing the zenith. The entire dome of the sky is shown in the circular field of view; the horizon is located around the outer rim of the circle.
Fairfax County, Virginia USA
18 SEP 2026 | 1:07 PM to 1:35 PM
Stratocumulus clouds (Sc) were streaming across the sky from north to south, as shown in the preceding time lapse video segments. After watching the video, perhaps you might agree with me that "Break Through the Clouds II" is an appropriate title for the song used as the music bed in my video.
The following panoramic composite image was taken using the "Camera" app on my Apple iPad mini 6, set for "Pano" mode.
 18 SEP 2026 | 3:06 PM | Panoramic view. (16239 × 3834 pixels.) |
Although some of the clouds in the preceding panoramic view looked dark and threatening, they didn't produce precipitation. The following local radar "Super-Res Reflectivity 1" image, saved using the "RadarScope" app, shows widely scattered rain showers across Virginia.
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| NWS KLWX Sterling [Virginia] | 3:29 PM EDT |
"Wind (mph)," "Weather" and "Sky Cond." are highlighted by red rectangles in the following excerpt from a table of three-day weather observations for KDCA on 18 SEP 2026 near the times when I recorded the photos used to create the time lapse video segments, and the panoramic composite image.
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| Source Credit: KDCA | National Weather Service. |
The clouds in the sky were mostly low level stratocumulus clouds (Sc) [from the Earth's surface to 2 km (0 - 6,500 ft)], as shown by the preceding table of weather observations.
Tech Tips
My Fujifilm X-T5 camera was set for manual exposure and manual focus. The focal length of the Opteka 6.5mm circular fisheye lens is, well, 6.5mm (~9.75mm to 10mm, 35mm equivalent). Aperture was set for ~f/8. The focus ring was set for ~3 ft, the hyperfocal distance at f/8. Shutter Speed was 1/1,250 s for the first video clip; 1/1,600 s for the second clip. ISO was set for 125. White Balance was accidentally set for 10,000 K (Kelvin), adding extreme orange-red warmth to the original JPG photos, and was corrected during post-processing. Aspect Ratio was set for M 3:2 (5472 x 3648 pixels). Image Quality was set for FINE+RAW (Fine JPEG plus LOSSLESS COMPRESSED RAF). A two (2) second interval was used between photos.
The camera-lens combo was mounted on a ball head/tripod so that the lens is pointed at the zenith. A green plastic spirit level mounted on the X-T5 hot shoe, used to level the camera body in this orientation.
Two photo sets were rendered to video using Apple "QuickTime Player"; the resulting movie clips were edited using Apple "Photos." The final YouTube video was created using DaVinci Resolve.
Related Resources
- "Road Lapse" and "Sky Lapse" along Richmond Highway" - a blog post by Walter Sanford featuring a time lapse video that was recorded after the two time lapse videos- and before the panoramic view included in this post.
- Posts on Walter Sanford's Blog sorted by relevance for the query "road lapse."
- Posts on Walter Sanford's Blog with the label "Opteka 6.5mm."
Copyright © 2026 by Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.
