Landscapes – Volumes 1 & 2
Landscapes: Volume One from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.
There is something about seeing the world move in slices of time as opposed to viewing it as a continual flow. Time-lapse photography fascinates when it is particularly well done. It draws you in. It can create a virtual world all of it’s own. At it’s very best, as this production from Dustin Farrell is, it can mentally take you to a whole different world. A “DreamScape” if you will, where skies rotate with radiating spots of starlight. Where mountains reveal further details as they slowly pass by. Where the sun trumpets onto the scene with growing, evolving rays of light.
The field of time-lapse photography takes a substantial amount of research and testing to master, especially with variable lighting conditions. In this very specialized field, one name stands out in the United States Southwest, photographer Dustin Farrell. Dustin has spent the past couple of years doing the research and putting what he has learned to work creating some of the most stunning landscape based time-lapse creations I have ever seen.
In January of this year, we previewed for your enjoyment Dustin’s latest work here on TheCameraForum.Com. That was Volume Three in Dustin’s three part series, and is available HERE. Due to popular demand, we bring you once again into Dustin’s magical world of the Southwest by Time-lapse. This time with Volume One in the series above, and Volume Two below.
Dustin released volume one which includes a year’s compilation of his time-lapse work, featuring areas of Arizona and Utah (Goblin Valley State Park and Natural Bridges National Monument) almost two years ago. Every clip is a RAW image sequence (5616 x 3744) that he rendered out as a 1080P 23.976fps Quick Time movie. The motion control was achieved using servo motors and as I understand it, a custom build positioning rig. Here is a little background on the areas shown in Volume One:
Natural Bridges National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of theFour Corners boundary of southeast Utah, in the western United States, at the junction of White Canyon and Armstrong Canyon, part of the Colorado River drainage. It features the second largest natural bridge in the world, carved from the white Permian sandstone of the Cedar Mesa Formation that gives White Canyon its name.
The three bridges in the Natural Bridges National Monument are named Kachina, Owachomo, and Sipapu (the largest), which are all Hopi names. A natural bridge is formed through erosion by water flowing in the stream bed of the canyon. During periods of flash floods the stream undercuts the walls of rock that separate the meanders (or “goosenecks”) of the stream, until the rock wall within the meander is undercut and the meander is cut off; the new stream bed then flows underneath the bridge. Eventually, as erosion and gravity enlarge the bridge’s opening, the bridge collapses under its own weight. There is evidence of at least two collapsed natural bridges within the Monument.
Goblin Valley State Park is a state park of Utah, USA. Its eminent feature is its thousands of hoodoos and hoodoo rocks, which are formations of mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles, some as high as several meters. The distinct shape of these rocks comes from an erosion-resistant layer of rock atop softer sandstone. Hiking is permitted in the park, which features three marked trails.
Dustin Farrell released his second video focusing on even more amazing landscapes of Arizona and Utah which has collected over3.6 million views in the last year since its release. Every frame of this video is also a raw still from a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR and processed with Adobe software. In Volume 2 he once again shows off his beautiful home state of Arizona and one state to the north, Utah. This video has some iconic landmarks that you have seen before. According to Dustin, he “felt that showing them again with motion controlled HDR and/or night timelapse would be a new way to see old landmarks.” He is certainly correct in this assumption.
Most of the motion control for this video was done with the “Stage Zero Dolly” by Dynamic Perception. Once he got comfortable using the DP dolly Dustin reports he fell in love. “I can set up shots now in much shorter times. More importantly for me, it is much smaller and much more portable than my homemade motion control. Without it, shots like the Delicate Arch shot in Utah would be nearly impossible due to the length of the hike.”
In addition to the Stage Zero, Dustin also used a three axis motion controlled CamTram. “The CamTram is the most versatile dolly I have ever used. Its applications are only limited by your creativity. The CamTram has virtually no weight limit. I was able to achieve shots that dolly-in with the camera just over the ground because of the CamTram’s ability to hold heavy counter weights” says Dustin.
Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.
PLEASE RATE THIS STORY! [ratings]
