If we have any new photographers out there, you'll probably feel my pain. Heck, even people who have been involved with photography for a while have probably been through it — or maybe they even still are! At least I'm hoping...I'd rather not be here by myself...

I'm talking about the pain of anticipating how that time lapse turned out. You know, the one you spent 15 minutes on, in the hopes it would look sick when you looked at it later.

Let's be honest, nine times out of 10 it was probably longer than 15 minutes of shooting. A lot longer.

Did I set the timer to the right setting? Are those clouds moving too slow for a three-second timing? Is an eighth of a second enough to capture a person's motion as a blur for a time lapse? Did I manage to stop the photos right when the cool things started with the sunset?!

These thoughts always run through my mind when I'm taking a time lapse. I want to make sure that what I'm capturing is pretty at least, but I also want to be able to tell a story. Whether I'm looking at a crowded intersection or a violent sky or a peaceful sunset, I want it to be more than just visual stimulation. A lot of the time, lapses you see in film or media are excellent at this. They make you feel something other than just "Whoa, that's wicked cool to see."

The first time I was really moved by a time lapse was in a documentary called "Chasing Ice" on Netflix, which is about receding glaciers. Yearlong events were captured and shown in all their tragedy before my very eyes in the time it takes to measure your pulse. Absolutely beautiful. It was the first time that the issue of global warming really hit me. I no longer was just bombarded by only numbers, now I had a visual.

Another one that comes to mind is the introduction of "House of Cards." The narrative point of that introduction isn't exactly clear to me, but even so, I'm enamored every time I see it. The movement of the camera during the time lapse is absolutely breathtaking.

Then check out this video of a time lapse that caught a "rain bomb". Yeah, it's as cool as it sounds.

OK, enough examples. Back to the point. Even if the story I am telling revolves around clouds changing in the horizon, the rules of storytelling still stand. There has to be a progression, and I have to show it properly. The good thing is that, regardless, the time lapse comes out and you can't help but think, "Wow, that's really cool." The human eye doesn't seem to catch the convolutions of a cloud over time, but speed it up into seconds in a time lapse, and suddenly the cloud dances on the horizon. The question is how to show it in the best way possible.

So how do we figure out how to manipulate the nuances that make up any skill, whether it be photography, painting, engineering, acting, hair styling or anything?

Practice the hell out of it and don't be ashamed of messing up. That's probably one of the hardest lessons to learn; it's OK to fail! Who likes saying, "Oh yeah, I messed that up. I'll just try again?" about 100 times before you can even get consistently decent at it? No one, but that is the game.

Honestly, I'm ready to play. It's fun getting to try something new and sharing it with others, so it's time to get started.

Until next week! Hopefully, I can show y'all what I come up with!