This is a short trailer of the 30+ minutes of timelapse I shot in 2020 at locations in South Dakota, Wyoming and Arizona. It was shot with Nikon D850 cameras in still mode and rendered at 8K resolution. My past features have aired on the DirecTV 4K channel, a few are on Stingray Naturescape on Youtube.
The Astrum feature may be available as a download in the future.
:30-:49 is Comet Neowise
Music “The Trailer” by Jeffrey Peterson. Licensed through Audiojungle.com 8K footage available for licensing.
SpaceX Starlink satellites are visible in parking orbit right after the Feb 17, 2020 launch in several of the shots. They look like scattered stars that aren’t moving across the sky. Normally satellites will streak across the sky in timelapse, Starlink do too once they are in operational orbit.
Field Of View is a compilation of timelapse I have shot in the last year. The first shot of the sunset supercell was done on July 23, 2015. That storm dropped multiple Tornadoes in eastern South Dakota, I was shooting it from central SD. Other locations in the sequences are Aurora in central, western South Dakota and the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. The Red Desert in Wyoming, Bandlands and Buffalo Gap National Grasslands area of South Dakota. Bighorn and Teton Mountain areas in Wyoming.
You can see the rest of the 100+ full length sequences, on the 30+ minute “Field Of View” feature, which you can download here or the link below. Music on the feature is by Simon Wilkinson at http://www.thebluemask.com
Available in 4K UHD, up to 4096 X 2304, for licensing.
Boars Tusk, Wyoming
Photography and Editing – Randy Halverson
Produced by Randy Halverson – Dakotalapse, LLC
Opening Dakotalapse graphics – Luke Arens
Music – “Uplifting” by Nick Perrin – licensed from Audiojungle
Flagstaff Micro Lite Camper and Aurora
Sponsors: Cheyenne Camping Center – They gave me a great deal on a Flagstaff Micro Lite camper, which worked great while shooting timelapse in remote areas. They also have a great service department.
Camera Gear Used
Nikon D810
Sony AR7II
Canon 5D Mark III’s
Canon 6D
Trails End is a compilation of some of my favorite timelapse shots from 2014, with a few Aurora shots from early this year. On many of the locations, I used my Palomino SS-1251 truck camper from Cheyenne Camper Center, often ending up near the end of some remote trail. It was shot in Wyoming, Utah and South Dakota. You can see the rest of the 100+ full length sequences, on the 30+ minute “Trails End” feature, which you can download here or the link below. Available in 4K UHD, up to 4096 X 2304, for licensing. 2016 Badlands Night Sky Workshop schedule
Canyonlands Utah Sunset
Some events to watch for:
The slower moving light streaks are airplanes, the fast ones are satellites. I also caught many meteors which are only 1 frame or 1/24th of a second on the timelapse.
:56 Bolide Meteor
1:01 Aurora at Devils Tower and throughout video
1:33 Two Bolide Meteors
Meteors With Persistent Trains 2:29 very fast and short persistent train to right of the Milky Way, a better one at 3:20
2:43 Final Boost Stage of GSSAP and ANGELS satellites 2:55 Owl sitting in tree
3:00 Pink Aurora in the sand dunes of Wyoming’s Red Desert
3:14 Sprites and Gravity Waves
South Dakota Aurora
Photography and Editing – Randy Halverson
Production Assistant – River Halverson
Opening Title graphics – Luke Arens
Music – “The Last Stand” licensed from Audiojungle
Title and Credit Music – Simon Wilkinson at TheBlueMask.com
Palomino Truck Camper
Sponsors: Cheyenne Camping Center – They gave me a great deal on a Palomino Palomino SS-1251 camper which worked great, they also have a great service department.
These 2 timelapse frames are from my latest timelapse “Huelux”. Go to 3:20 in the video to see the timelapse.
A bright Satellite flash or Iridium flare, can sometimes look like a meteor in a long exposure star photo. If you are shooting timelapse, it is easy to distinguish between a meteor or satellite flash in the frames. Most meteors enter the atmosphere at 25,000 mph or faster, and burn up relatively fast at a much lower altitude than satellites.
If you are shooting a 30 second exposure with a 3 second interval, the meteor would have to be burning up for at least 34 seconds for it to show up in 2 consecutive frames. I have caught dozens of meteors in timelapse frames and seen many with my own eyes. The longest I have seen with my own eyes has lasted maybe 3 seconds. Satellites are moving much slower than meteors and are much higher, so they take longer to travel across the sky. So they will always be visible, even a faint trail, in 2 or more frames, if they are within the frame. Satellites are an important part of our exploration of space and they are put together with incredibly detailed technology and equipment like transmitters, solar panels, LVDT’s (you can look here for more information on this), to name a few, so to see one traveling across the sky at night is a sight to behold and we can only hope that it is not falling or breaking down.
In these two consecutive frames, you will see the bolide Meteor in the lower center, and a Satellite in the upper left, and another one to the right of the Milky Way core. This was 25 second exposures with a 3 second interval between the two photos. Click image to enlarge.
Meteor and Satellites
The Meteor is gone from the following frame, because it was travelling so fast and burned up, both satellites still have a trail. I think it also missed a bright part of the flare on the upper left Satellite, during the 3 second interval between shots. Some satellites will show up in 5 or more frames and will take minutes to cross the sky. Click image to enlarge.
Huelux is also on Youtube below, in 4K Ultra HD resolution.
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I shot Huelux from April-November 2013 in South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah. The weather in 2013 made it difficult for me to get some of the shots I wanted. There were many times I planned to shoot the Milky Way or Aurora, and the clouds would roll in. But that also allowed me to get more night storm timelapse than I have any other year. I was in Utah for 6 nights, it was clear only one night, it was also 95F at midnight that night. So I couldn’t shoot as high of an ISO as I wanted because of noise, but I still pulled off a few good shots in Zion Canyon.The weather was much the same while I was in Wyoming, it was cloudy 2/3 of the nights I was there. But I did get some of my best Milky Way shots of the year in Wyoming, see 1:45-2:05 in the video. The clouds did make for some good sunrise and sunset shots.
On the Milky Way shots you will see a lot of slow and fast moving satellites, a few meteors and planes. The meteors are hard to see in timelapse, but you may see a quick flash because they only last one frame. If you see a light moving across the sky, it is either an airplane or satellite, not a meteor.
Some of the Aurora I shot were unexpected with no advanced notice. Several nights I was setting up Milky Way shots, when I noticed the glow in the sky to the north. In one case an hour before I got any Aurora notification on my phone. The storm shot at 2:57 has Aurora behind it, which was quickly covered up by the storm. The low Aurora on the horizon were often yellow, while closer (higher in the sky) Aurora were green. If I adjusted the yellow Aurora on the horizon green, it threw the rest of the colors way off.
Aurora behind a building storm.
I came up with the title Huelux, which comes from hue (a color property), and lux which is latin for light. Some of the Aurora and Milky Way were difficult to color correct, so I spent a lot of time with the hue settings, white balance, etc. during the month and a half edit.
The end credit backgrounds are 10 second timelapse exposures of Andromeda Galaxy and Orion shot with a 200mm lens on an Ioptron Skytracker. You will see some satellites moving through the sequences.
10 of my favorite stills from 2013. Most of these were taken from timelapse. Click arrows to navigate, click on photo to enlarge. Some of these are available as prints here.
If you have ever been in a wide open landscape the most interesting thing isn’t necessarily the landscape itself, but what you see coming over the horizon. Growing up in South Dakota the landscape itself can be beautiful at times, but that doesn’t compare to what the sky can do, especially at night. Combine that with the landscape, and it makes for great photo opportunities.
Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Defiance, Battlestar Galactica, etc) once again helped me with some original music for the video. This time he suggested adding vocals to the mix. Brendan McCreary and his band (Young Beautiful in a Hurry) did just that. They came up with “I Forever” The single is available on iTunes, Amazon and other online sources.
I shot Horizons from April – October 2012 mostly in South Dakota, but also some at Devils Tower in Wyoming. From the rugged Badlands, the White River valley and the Black Hills of South Dakota, the horizons seem to endlessly change. I edited Horizons in 4K resolution and the feature is available in 4K.
Above: Preview the first 2 minutes of the Horizons Feature.
Opening Scene from Horizons 30 minute long feature film.
The Horizons feature is 30 minutes of new and never before seen Milky Way, Aurora, Clouds, Sunrise and Sunset timelapse. Set to the music “Frozen White Light” composed by Simon Wilkinson at http://www.thebluemask.com
If you have ever been in a wide open landscape the most interesting thing isn’t necessarily the landscape itself, but what you see coming over the horizon. Growing up in South Dakota the landscape itself can be beautiful at times, but that doesn’t compare to what the sky can do, especially at night. Combine that with the landscape, and it makes for great photo opportunities.
I shot Horizons from April – October 2012 mostly in South Dakota, but also some at Devils Tower in Wyoming. From the rugged Badlands, the White River valley and the Black Hills of South Dakota, the horizons seem to endlessly change. I edited Horizons in 4K resolution and this feature is available in 4K upon request.
A few short clips from my upcoming timelapse film titled Horizons. The online short will feature an original score by Bear McCreary. http://www.bearmccreary.com
