Sunday 08 / December / 2024
Muscat: A British resident, who has been living in Oman for more than six years, has captured a stunning time-lapse of a cloud waterfall occurrence on the Amerat mountain road.
Click here to watch Ian's amazing time-lapse video
The video, which shows the clouds travelling over the mountain, before being evaporated by the rays of the sun as they cascade down its slope, was the result of a 20-minute long time-lapse, which was later condensed into about 15 seconds, and was created by Ian McNaught, the head of Library and Computing Services at Majan College.
“It was just complete luck, actually,” he admitted to the Times of Oman. “My friend and I had hiked up the mountain the night before and slept at the top so we were ready to catch the sunrise, which we’ve done a few times before.
“There was no planning here, and when we woke up in the morning, we found that we had been engulfed in a sea of clouds,” he recalled. “Muscat was under clouds and we were above it. Because the sun was coming in a direction that was against the clouds on top of the ridge, as soon as the clouds went over the top of the ridge, they would just evaporate.”
“It was about 7am last Saturday, and luckily I had my camera and tripod with me at the time and captured a time-lapse, and decided to put it together.”
The response to his video, from people in both Oman and his native United Kingdom, has been very positive.
“I’ve uploaded this video on Facebook and I’ve gotten quite a lot of likes and comments because I think people in Muscat realise that this is just a few miles from their home and they were probably asleep under clouds where this is going on,” said McNaught.
“People back home in the U.K. were surprised at the video and how lovely a place this is,” he added.
Having lived here for a considerable amount of time now, McNaught and his young family are very fond of the Sultanate and its family-friendly vibe.
“I’ve been here for about six years, and Oman is really family-friendly and peaceful and it’s got some great outdoors,” he explained. “I could hike up to a mountain that’s just 20 minutes from my place and take this amazing picture and there’s not many places in the world where you get to do that.”
McNaught currently uses a Sony A7 DSLR, his first professional camera, and has learned much about patience and perseverance during his experiments through the lens.
“I wouldn’t say I hiked up just for the photography, because I enjoyed the exercise and peace and quiet, but hiking up takes about two and a half hours and it’s about the same time coming down as well,” said Ian. “But it’s totally worth it because of the peacefulness up there and you never see anybody on top of the hill. It’s kind of a spiritual experience in a way, even if I hadn’t gotten the picture, but to record a picture like that, in such a beautiful way, is a different experience altogether.”
