dakotalapse

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. More information and stills at http://dakotalapse.com/2013/06/horizons/ Watch the 30 minute feature on Vimeo On Demand https://vimeo.com/ondemand/horizons 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 http://tinyurl.com/pgrq45p , 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, the horizons seem to endlessly change. Download the 30 minute long Horizons feature at http://dakotalapse.com/2013/06/horizons-feature Photography and Editing – Randy Halverson Production Assistants – River Halverson and Kelly McILhone Color Correction - Jeff Zueger - Spectrum Films Sponsors: Dynamic Perception – The Stage Zero and Stage One dollies were used in many of the shots. I can't recommend them enough for a quality product at a low price. http://www.dynamicperception.com/#oid=1005_1 Borrowlenses – Throughout the summer I got some great Canon and Zeiss lenses from Borrowlenses to use in the shoot. They have great service and every lens performed flawlessly. So if you ever want to try out a lens ,or just need one for an special shoot, give them a try! http://www.borrowlenses.com Granite Bay Software – I try to avoid flicker in sunset or daytime timelapse while shooting. But sometimes it is unavoidable. I used GBDeflicker to smooth out the flicker in some of the sunset timelapse. http://www.granitebaysoftware.com/ Equipment Used Canon 5D Mark III, sometimes with a 2nd from Borrowlenses.com Canon 5D Mark II Canon 60D I used a variety of lenses, many from Borrowlenses.com Canon 14, 16-35, 24-70, 50 F1.2, 70-200mm lenses Zeiss 21, 25, 35mm lenses Nikon 14-24mm with Novoflex Adapter Available in 4K Ultra HD resolution. Contact for licensing footage, shooting rates or anything else. My website http://www.dakotalapse.com Randy Halverson dakotalapse@gmail.com Follow: Facebook http://www.facebook.com/dakotalapse Twitter http://www.twitter.com/dakotalapse

Featuring an original score by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead, Eureka, etc) http://www.bearmccreary.com Thanks to Bear for taking the time to do this! Watch in HD http://dakotalapse.com/2012/02/temporal-distortion-2/ for more info and digital download. There is a 23 minute extended cut, available for digital download here http://dakotalapse.com/2012/02/temporal-distortion-extended-cut/ The feature is 23+ minutes of Milky Way, Aurora and other night timelapse, it has 2 original scores by Simon Wilkinson http://www.thebluemask.com , as well as some from his royalty free collection. Download an MP3 of Bear McCreary's Temporal Distortion on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/8955prd or on Itunes ___________________________________________________________________________________ What you see is real, but you can't see it this way with the naked eye. It is the result of thousands of 20-30 second exposures, edited together to produce the timelapse. 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. 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 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/02/a-meteors-lingering-tale/ 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. The Aurora were shot in central South Dakota in September 2011 and near Madison, Wisconsin on October 25, 2011. Watch for two Deer at 1:27 Most of the video was shot near the White River in central South Dakota during September and October 2011, there are other shots from Arches National Park in Utah, and Canyon of the Ancients area of Colorado during June 2011. Equipment Used Thanks to Dynamic Perception for their support and for making the Stage Zero Dolly. http://www.dynamicperception.com The best dolly made in many ways! 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. 3 second intervals between exposures Production Assistants - River Halverson and Kelly McIlhone Opening title by Gus Winkelman // Winkelmedia LLC // Contact Guswinkelman@gmail for creative solutions Available in 4K Digital Cinema Contact for licensing footage, or anything else. Randy Halverson http://www.dakotalapse.com dakotalapse@gmail.com Follow: Google + https://plus.google.com/115274420552571826637/posts Facebook http://www.facebook.com/dakotalapse Twitter http://www.twitter.com/dakotalapse

Tempest Milky Way won Best Overall and Audience Choice at the 2011 Chronos Film Festival. http://www.chronosfilmfestival.com One of the challenges in making this video, was trying to get good storm with stars 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. 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. Extended cut available here http://dakotalapse.com/2011/08/tempest-milky-way/ 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. This was all shot in central South Dakota from June-August. Canon 5D Mark II for a few shots, Canon 60D and T2i Canon 16-35, Tokina 11-16 Shot in RAW format. Manual mode, Exposure was 30 seconds on most Milky Way shots, 20-25 on some of the storm shots, ISO 1600 or 3200 F2.8. Simon Wilkinson at http://www.thebluemask.com created the music "Tempest" and sound for it. http://www.thebluemask.com/shop/tempest/?tid=tempestmilkyway I used the Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly on most of the shots as well, it is awesome. http://www.dynamicperception.com Contact for licensing or anything else Randy Halverson http://www.dakotalapse.com Follow: Google + https://plus.google.com/115274420552571826637/posts Facebook http://www.facebook.com/dakotalapse Twitter http://www.twitter.com/dakotalapse

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 60D and T2i Tokina 11-16 Sigma 20mm F1.8 Tamron 17-50 Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly http://www.dynamicperception.com 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 Available for licensing in 4K Ultra HD resolution Ten seconds of the video is about 2 hours 20 minutes in real time. Simon Wilkinson from http://www.thebluemask.com created the soundtrack "Exodus" for the video More about Exodus on his site. http://www.thebluemask.com/blog/2011/06/new-time-lapse-video-featuring-my-music-exodus/ Wired.com article http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/06/milky-way-video/ Bad Astronomer article http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/06/03/gorgeous-milky-way-time-lapse/ For licensing contact http://www.dakotalapse.com Follow http://www.twitter.com/dakotalapse http://www.facebook.com/dakotalapse

Take a look at this stunning timelapse video showcasing the beauty of night storms, Aurora and the Milky Way. From Randy Halverson and Dakotalapse LLC.