Category Archives: Motion Control

Milky Way, Motion Control, Still Photos, Timelapse

ISS and Milky Way with 3 cameras

 

On 10-16-2011 I caught the International Space Station, rising next to the Milky Way, on 3 cameras that were shooting timelapse. The moon rose shortly after it passed. The timelapse above is slowed down when the ISS passes.

Phil Plait also has an interesting article on it here.

This timelapse, and the others, are on the extended cut of Temporal Distortion.

The first camera was setup on a small lake with calm winds.

ISS reflecting on lake
ISS reflecting on lake

One mile south of there, I had 2 more cameras in the valley of the White River. They were both on Dynamic Perception dollies, doing low to the ground shots.

Second camera with ISS and Milky Way
Second camera with ISS and Milky Way

The 3rd Camera was about 100 yards south east from the second.

ISS and Milky Way from 3rd Camera
ISS and Milky Way from 3rd Camera
Meteor, Milky Way, Motion Control, Still Photos, Timelapse

Meteor Persistent Train

 

 

 

Bad Astronomer on the Meteor and persistent train

While shooting a Moon set with the Milky Way timelapse near the White River in South Dakota. I caught a meteor with a persistent train. It lasted for 68 frames of the timelapse then moved out of frame to the left. In real time it was over a half an hour. It takes a real bright meteor to show up this well in a frame. The timelapse looks real cool, that will be on my next video. Click the images to view full size. The first image was taken at 9:05 pm on October 1.

See a slowed down timelapse of this on Temporal Distortion

You can see the start of it on the left of the flash.

2011 Meteor with persistent train
2011 Meteor with persistent train

The Persistent train lasted over a half an hour, then moved to the left out of the frame. It is the orange cloud where the meteor was.

Persistent train from meteor
Persistent train from meteor
4K, Motion Control, Timelapse

Tempest Milky Way

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Tempest Milky Way

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Tempest Milky Way won Best Overall and Audience Choice at the 2011 Chronos Film Festival

Download an extended cut of this video here, with almost 1 minute of extra footage. 5$ See stills below.

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Order prints and gallery wraps on Zenfolio

Stills from footage on the extended cut.

One of the challenges in making this video, was trying to get good storm and star shots. The opportunity doesn’t come along very often, the storm has to be moving the right speed and the lightning can overexpose the long exposures. I had several opportunities this summer to get storm and star shots. With good . In one instance, within a minute of picking up the camera and dolly, 70mph winds hit. One storm was perfect, it came straight towards the setup, then died right before it reached it.

At the 1:57 mark a Whitetail buck came in to check out the setup. It was caught on 20 frames, and was there for about 10 minutes. It was only 50 yards from the camera, dolly and light.

At the 3:24 mark, a meteor reflects on the water of the small lake, see still below in Photos. There are also quite a few other meteors in the timelapse.

Canon 5D Mark II for a few shots, Canon 60D and T2i
Canon 16-35, Tokina 11-16

Exposure on most shots was 20-30 seconds, ISO 1600 or 3200 F2.8.

Simon Wilkinson at thebluemask.com created the music and sound for it.

Download the MP3 on his site http://www.thebluemask.com/shop/tempest/?tid=tempestmilkyway

Available in 4K Ultra HD for licensing.

Contact for licensing or anything else
Randy Halverson
dakotalapse@gmail.com
Follow:
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Still frames from Tempest Milky Way

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4K, Motion Control, Timelapse

Plains Milky Way

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Plains Milky Way

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During the month of May, I shot Milky Way timelapse in central South Dakota when I had the time, and the weather cooperated. The biggest challenge was cloudy nights and the wind. There were very few nights, when I could shoot, that were perfectly clear, and often the wind was blowing 25mph +. That made it hard to get the shots I wanted. I kept most of the shots low to the ground, so the wind wouldn’t catch the setup and cause camera shake, or blow it over. I used a Stage Zero Dolly on the dolly shots and a “Milapse” mount on the panning ones.

This was all shot at night. If you see stars and it looks like daylight, it is actually moon light. 20+ second exposures make it look like daylight.

Canon EOS 60D and
Canon T2i
Tokina 11-16mm
Tamron AF 17-50mm

Sigma 20mm F1.8

 

Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly

Shot in RAW format, the Milky Way shots were 30 seconds exposure F2.8 or F1.8 with 2 second interval between shots, for 3-4 hours run time. ISO 1600, the opening shot was ISO 3200.

Ten seconds of the video is about 2 hours 20 minutes in real time.

Simon Wilkinson from thebluemask.com created the soundtrack “Exodus” for the video

Available in 4K Ultra HD for licensing.

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4K, Motion Control, Timelapse

Orion – motion controlled night timelapse

“Orion” – motion controlled night timelapse from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

 

Wired.com article Robo-Camera Rig Animates the Night Sky

Taken in central South Dakota in late march-early april. It was the first time I’ve had the chance to use an Orion head mounted on the Dynamic Perception Stage Zero dolly. dynamicperception.com

Orion head (aka Merlin or Celestron) telescope head allows for an ultra slow pan and tilt of the camera while it moves slowly along the dolly. The MX2 controller from Dynamic Perception also controls the Orion head. It wasn’t used on every shot, because it just wouldn’t work for it, or the shot was from the second camera mounted on a “milapse” telescope head. It works great with the MX2 controller from Dynamic Perception and I’ll be using it as often as I can. I tested the included controller with the Orion and found it was a little too fast for night timelapse, but with the MX2 controlling it, it worked great.

At 2:09 you can see Orion head panning and tilting on the dolly.

Canon EOS 60D and
Canon T2i
Tokina 11-16mm
Tamron AF 17-50mm

Sigma 20mm F1.8

Shot in RAW format, most shots were 25 seconds exposure F2.8 with 2 second interval between shots, for about 300 frames or so (several hours). There were a few 30 second exposures. ISO 1600

Music is “Equinox” by American Dollar theamericandollar.info

For more info or licensing contact
dakotalapse.com
twitter.com/​dakotalapse
facebook.com/​pages/​DakotaLapse/​111818295557281

Video – Orion Head moving on Stage Zero Dolly

4K, Motion Control, Timelapse

Sub Zero – winter night timelapse

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Sub Zero – winter night timelapse from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

 

 

Shot in South Dakota in early February with most nights sub zero with -25 wind chill. Used Dynamic Perception Stage Zero dolly and Milapse mount on most of the shots.

The Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly worked great in the sub zero temps.

Canon EOS 60D and
Canon T2i 

Tokina 11-16mm

Tamron AF 17-50mm

Shot in RAW format most shots were 20 seconds exposure F2.8 with 1 second interval per shot for about 300 frames or so. There were a few 30 second and one 15 second exposures. ISO 1600

Music is “Scorpio” By Simon Wilkinson thebluemask.com

Simon’s Music has also been heard on Fox’s “24″

Read some articles about it in Media Coverage