Shooting timelapse in cold weather, Storm Jacket camera cover, Rokinon 14mm lens


The other night, I shot a timelapse of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter conjunction west of Madison, WI. It was about 20 degrees, so not real cold, but cold enough to need some cold weather gear on the camera. The above video shows the short timelapse, and also a behind the scenes timelapse. It is a crescent moon, but I was shooting 20 second exposures, so it looks full. A Storm Jacket by Vortex Media is on the 5D Mark II, on the Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly.

Hand Warmers for dew/frost

I get a lot of questions like, “How do I keep Dew or Frost from building up on the lens?”, in cold, or just damp nights from humidity. Every night I shoot, whether I think I need it or not, I use disposable hand warmers on the lens. I place it on the bottom of the lens and hold it on with a rubber band. You could also use anything else that would work to hold it on, like a velcro strap, tape, etc. The temperature of the lens only needs to be a little warmer than the outside temp to keep it dew and frost free. I used them when I shot Sub Zero, in -25 F wind chill. This works most of the time. But if the humidity is extremely high, it may not keep up on a real wide angle lens with a large front element, like the Nikon 14-24. But I’m not sure if a battery operated one would work any better. They sell battery operated lens warmers, but I don’t want to deal with any more wires and batteries than I already have. You can also buy a lot of hand warmers cheaper than buying one battery operated lens warmer.

Hand warmer on lens for dew or frost prevention
Hand warmer on lens for dew or frost prevention

 

Storm Jacket by Vortex Media

My timelapse setups usually run for 3-4 hours, and most of the time I’m not immediately near it. It’s best to set it up and leave it alone. That way stray light from a flashlight, doesn’t ruin the shot. I have been looking for a replacement for the cheap rain covers that I have used in the past. I found one that I think will work better than others I have looked at. It is the Storm Jacket by Vortex Media. The Storm Jacket is compact when folded up and has a bungee closure at each end. See more info about it on their site.

The Storm Jacket Pro Model, which I have, also has a large velcro opening on the bottom. That way you can use it with a tripod, or on a dolly. I’ve used it on the Dynamic Perception Stage Zero dolly and it worked great. The Storm Jacket is well made and will keep dew, rain, snow and dust off of the camera. It also hides the red led on the camera, but with the 20 second exposures in the timelapse, it shows up more than it actually did to the eye. See photos below.

Rokinon 14mm lens

I also recently bought a Rokinon 14mm lens, it seems like a good lens for the price, and I like what I shot with it that night. There is a still from it on my T2i, below. I have yet to try it on my 5D Mark II, but I’ve heard it works great on it.

Temporal Distortion Extended Cut

 

Temporal Distortion Extended Cut

 

See the Temporal Distortion short with Bear McCreary’s music here.

This extended cut excerpts video, features Simon Wilkinson’s music. Buy and download the 23 minute extended cut below.

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What you see is real, but you can’t see it this way with the naked eye. It is the result of 20-30 second exposures edited together over many hours to produce the timelapse. This allows you to see the Milky Way, Aurora and other phenomena, in ways you wouldn’t normally see them.

In the opening “Dakotalapse” title shot, you see bands of red and green moving across the sky. After asking several astronomers, they are possible noctilucent clouds, airglow or faint Aurora. You can also see the red and green bands in other shots. This video has Milky Way, Aurora, Meteor and Moon lit night timelapse.  This was shot entirely at night.  If it looks like daytime, it is actually the moon lighting up the landscape.

This was shot with Canon DSLR’s as stills, and consists of over 33,000 stills shot in RAW format, at the highest resolution possible, on each camera.

Music on the Video

Featuring two original scores by Simon Wilkinson http://www.thebluemask.com  and also some from his Royalty Free Collections.  This does not have Bear McCreary’s music on it, his music is on this video.

Order Prints and Gallery Wraps

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South Dakota residents must pay 4% sales tax.

All downloads are for home or personal use only.   May not be incorporated into a production, altered or uploaded to other web sites.  For those uses contact.

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The Temporal Distortion feature is 23 minutes of night timelapse featuring the following segments

Milky Way Segment 8+ minutes

Aurora Segment – 2+ minutes

Desert (Colorado/Utah) – 2+ minutes

Moon Light – 6 minutes

Deer Lapse – 1.5 minutes

Fall Skies – 2+ minutes

Behind the Scenes (timelapse of timelapses)- 1 minute

You will see the same scenes as the online Temporal Distortion video. But this was a completely different edit, with the shots seen at full length, and you will see a bunch of new ones.

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The Aurora were shot in central South Dakota in September 2011 and near Madison, Wisconsin on October 25, 2011.

Most of the video was shot near the White River in central South Dakota in September and October 2011, but there are other shots from Arches National Park in Utah, and Canyon of the Ancients area of Colorado during June 2011.

Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 60D
Canon 16-35Tokina 11-16

Shot in RAW format. Manual mode, Exposure was 30 seconds on most Milky Way shots, 15-30 seconds on Aurora. ISO 1600 – 6400 F2.8.

Thanks to Dynamic Perception for their support, and for making the Stage Zero Dolly, which I used on most of the shots.

I used a Kessler Crane pocket dolly and KC Lite Crane on a few shots as well.

Photography and Editing – Randy Halverson

Music – Simon Wilkinson

Additional Photography – River Halverson

Production Assistants – River Halverson and Kelly McIlhone

Opening title by Gus Winkelman // Winkelmedia LLC  // Contact Guswinkelman@gmail.com for creative solutions

Available in 4K Ultra HD for licensing.

Contact for licensing footage, or anything else.
Randy Halverson
dakotalapse@gmail.com
Follow:
Google + https://plus.google.com/115274420552571826637/posts

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/dakotalapse

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/dakotalapse

Still frames of some additional shots on the extended cut.

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Temporal Distortion

Temporal Distortion

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Featuring an original score by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead, Eureka, etc) Bear wrote about composing Temporal Distortion here. Thanks to Bear for taking the time to do this!

Download an MP3 of Bear McCreary’s Temporal Distortion on Amazon or on Itunes

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There is a 23 minute long extended cut, available for digital download here.

The extended cut is 23+ minutes of Milky Way, Aurora and other night timelapse, it has two original scores by Simon Wilkinson, as well as some from his Royalty Free collection.

________________________________________________________________

What you see is real, but you can’t see it this way with the naked eye. It is the result of 20-30 second exposures edited together over many hours to produce the timelapse like taking . This allows you to see the Milky Way, Aurora and other Phenonmena in a way you wouldn’t normally see them.
In the opening “Dakotalapse” title shot, you see bands of red and green moving across the sky. After asking several Astronomers, they are possible noctilucent clouds, airglow or faint Aurora. I never got a definite answer to what it is. You can also see the red and green bands in other shots.

Order Prints and Gallery Wraps

At :53 and 2:17 seconds into the video you see a Meteor with a Persistent Train. Which is ionizing gases, which lasted over a half hour in the cameras frame. Phil Plait wrote an article about the phenomena here.
There is a second Meteor with a much shorter persistent train at 2:51 in the video. This one wasn’t backlit by the moon like the first, and moves out of the frame quickly.

Watch for two Deer at 1:27 (look for a quick flash in lower left)

Most of the video was shot near the White River in central South Dakota in September and October 2011, but there are other shots from Arches National Park in Utah, and Canyon of the Ancients area of Colorado during June 2011. The Aurora were shot in central South Dakota in September 2011 and near Madison, Wisconsin on October 25, 2011.

Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 60D
Canon 16-35, Tokina 11-16

Shot in RAW format. Manual mode, Exposure was 30 seconds on most Milky Way shots, 15-30 seconds on Aurora. ISO 1600 – 6400 F2.8.

Thanks to Dynamic Perception for their support, and for making the Stage Zero Dolly, which I used on most of the shots.

Production Assistants – River Halverson and Kelly McIlhone

Opening title by Gus Winkelman // Winkelmedia LLC // Contact Guswinkelman@gmail for creative solutions

Contact for licensing footage, or anything else.
Randy Halverson
dakotalapse@gmail.com
Follow:
Google + https://plus.google.com/115274420552571826637/posts

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/dakotalapse

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/dakotalapse

 

Behind the scenes of Temporal Distortion from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

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