Tag Archives: prairie

Still Photos, Timelapse

Meteor Persistent Train – 2012

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Update: Phil Plait also wrote this article about it.

What are the odds that you can catch a meteor with a persistent train, in the same spot, one year later? On October 6th, 2012, I setup timelapse, in the location that I caught this one.

2011 Meteor with persistent train – click to enlarge

2011 Meteor with persistent train
2011 Meteor with persistent train

 

I had not shot any timelapse at that spot, since October 2011. At 10:07 PM the camera caught a meteor, the following 40 frames show the persistent train drifting off to the east, then it disappears. It lasted over 20 minutes in real time. I don’t think it would have been visible to the naked eye, but with 30 second exposures, it is. Taken in central South Dakota with a Canon 5D Mark III, Nikon 14-24 with novoflex adapter, F2.8, 30 seconds, ISO 3200

Phil Plait wrote about meteor persistent trains, with my photos from last year, here.

The Meteor – click photo to enlarge

2012 Meteor with persistent train
2012 Meteor with persistent train

2 minutes 10 seconds later – close up of persistent train – click to enlarge

Meteor persistent train 2012

 

Meteor from 2nd Camera, a few hundred yards away – 5D Mark II with Canon 16-24

Meteor from 2nd Camera
Meteor from 2nd Camera
4K, Aurora, Meteor, Milky Way, Motion Control, Timelapse

Temporal Distortion Extended Cut

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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 16-35, 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.

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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4K, Aurora, Meteor, Milky Way, Motion Control, Timelapse

Temporal Distortion

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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.

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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 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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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:
Google + https://plus.google.com/115274420552571826637/posts

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

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

Still frames from Tempest Milky Way

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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