Daily Photo Dose

Driving from Calgary to Lethbridge chasing a lightning storm.

I initially became interested in timelapse work after seeing the film Baraka years ago. While I don’t think I will be shooting timelapse work on 70mm film with Philip Glass scores, I do love to experiment and work toward shooting long term timelapses over several days, up to months. I’ve started to build a small GoPro rig that I will be able to secure in remote areas. Here’s the start of the build and test footage, be sure to change the quality settings to 4k.

The timelapse rig is built into a Pelican 1120 case. I used a drill press to cut a circle the same size as a GoPro lens filter and then used epoxy to glue the filter in place. I’m using an older GoPro Hero +3 B as my camera, connected to a scheduler that plugs directly into the back of the gopro. The scheduler will eventually be programmed to turn the camera on at sunrise and off at sunset to conserve battery for longer projects. I’m currently using a cellphone power pack to keep the camera running longer than an hour.

The next steps in the project are a custom 18650 lithium-ion battery array, and a secure mounting system. As you can tell bungee cords, a bike lock and mastercraft lock on the case will only work for short tests. Stay tuned.

This morning I planned on catching the super moon setting behind the West Lethbridge mine site. I got a slow start to the morning scraping my windshield and braving icy roads with my less than ideal non winter tires. (buying studded tires next winter!) I pulled up to the location just as the moon was starting to tuck behind the mine site. I barely set my Fuji camera up in time to shoot a short timelapse, then fumbled to get out my 5dmk4 and shoot a few frames before it was too late! Here’s the results:

Photo: Canon 5D mk4, 70-200 2.8 w/ 2xTC at 400mm F5.6, Cropped in post. | Video: Fuji X-E2S 1600mm achieved with manual focus 500mm F8 Mirror lens, 2xTC and Canon FD to Fuji X adapter.

A 4k Timelapse of the Northern Lights shot over Lethbridge Alberta

Waterton Lakes National Park 4k Timelapse from Jaime Vedres on Vimeo.