Monument Valley Time-lapse

April 22, 2022
CanonLandscapesMonument ValleyNational ParksNight sky time-lapseRichard Mack Photographytime-lapseTimelapse+
Images from Monument Valley, Arizona

On my recent trip to the Southwest, we stopped in Monument Valley for one night, too short of a time but that’s all the time we had. We stayed at The View Hotel on the Navajo Reservation which overlooks the Mitten and valley. Perfect location and many rooms have open porches for sky watching. Perfect! I set up two cameras for time-lapse. The main camera, a Canon 5D IV with the 16-35mm lens and another 5D IV with the 28-105 lens. I used the Pulse intervalometer by Alpine Labs for the timelapse.

The technical side. The camera with the 16-35mm lens was the main camera which did both nighttime star timelapses. It was set at ISO 2000 and f2.8 at 20 second exposures. The exposures were done every 30 seconds. The first timelapse in the film took 2 hours and 56 minutes to produce. I’ve seen people using higher ISO’s but haven’t done that yet to se how much noise there might be in the shots. These exposures were about 1 stop too dark. I lightened them among other adjustments in Lightroom. I also adjusted the kelvin temperature from 5500, down to 4500, to bring out the blue and blackness of the sky.

The timelapse of sunrise was done on the second camera with shots every 2 seconds with the settings ISO 100, F11 and shutter ranging from 1/13th to 1/40th of a second. If you look closely, you can see the wind blowing dust and a few small dust devils across the ground. By the time we had to leave there was a dust storm a brewing and it was hard to see the valley.

In post processing the timelapse I use the plugin from Timelapse+ Studio in Lightroom to create the key exposures and then make adjustments to these images and have the plugin adjust the images evenly across the length of each timelapse video.

Images from Monument Valley, Arizona
Images from Monument Valley, Arizona
Images from Monument Valley, Arizona
Images from Monument Valley, Arizona
Images from Monument Valley, Arizona

One great thing with timelapse is if you are shooting from a hotel balcony you can fall asleep while it is playing out! OK, I woke up several times to check things which was good as the Milky Way was rising farther south than I thought even with the star apps I have to calculate it before a shoot. When I started the clouds looked like it could either get overcast or stay partly cloudy. One of those times it will work or not – but if you don’t go ahead and shoot it you can’t get it back!

Images from Monument Valley, Arizona

I hope you enjoy the still images and the video! If you have any questions just ask!

Cheers,

Richard

#monumentvalley #richardmackphoto #nature #timelapse #timelapseplus #astrophotography #Canon5D4 #canon #natgeoyourshot #natgeo #stars #nightsky #milkyway #milkywayphotography #alpinelabs #alpinepulse

Taliesin, Spring Green

August 2, 2021
Architectural PhotographyMidwestMidwestMidwestTourismtravelTravel PhotographyWisconsin
  • Originally the barn at Taliesin.
  • Frank Lloyd Wright house backside at Taliesin.
  • Garden and pond at Taliesin.
  • Main entrance to the Wright home at Taliesin.

A few weeks ago we took a trip up to Spring Green to see both the American Players Theatre and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin, his home in Wisconsin and on 800 acres he used as a place to teach his architecture students. It is currently 400 acres in the Taliesin Preservation Trust. The home is the third one Wright built as the two previous ones burned down. You can only visit the grounds and structures, of which there are many, in a tour group, so photography is limited in time as you stroll through and hear the history of the place. The photo’s are all shot during a tour using my iPhone.

  • Old stables now garages at Taliesin.
  • Old stables now garages at Taliesin.
  • Main room of Wright’s studio where he met with clients at Taliesin.
  • Looking down the studio at Taliesin. The lamp on the left was a Wright design and every student had to make one out of plywood. It can be adjusted to have the light reflect up or down.
  • Waiting area at Wright’s studio.
  • A corner door which opens on both sides and the current office of the Wright Preservation Foundation at Taliesin.

Being someone who thought about becoming an architect and then starting my career in photography as an architectural photographer I have an admiration for many of Wright’s designs. Although he was clearly not good on the structural side of design. I love his prairie style with it’s overhangs and lots of windows. One interesting thing he did being only 5’ 5” tall was make short ceilings, especially when entering a room though a hallway or changing spaces within a room. His thought was it makes you want to move into the bigger space, often with vaulted ceilings.

  • The breakfast area which looks out to “the bird walk” which cantaleaver’s out away from the house.
  • The breakfast area which looks out to “the bird walk” which cantaleaver’s out away from the house.
  • Main Living room at Taliesin.
  • Guest bedroom with door above their daughter used to preform pupet shows at.
  • Area between the bedrooms at Taliesin.
  • Frank Lloyd Wright’s bedroom and the actual bed he slept in. Notice the bedroom allows him to see through the entire house on first floor.
  • Frank Lloyd Wright’s desk in his bedroom at Taliesin.
  • Wright’s bedroom where he could work at his desk at night and see the famrland, his sister’s house and the family church as well as the entire first floor common areas at Taliesin.
  • The pond outside Wright’s bedroom at Taliesin.
  • Frank Llyod Wright’s grave where he no longer lies as his third wife moved his asshes to be with her in Arizonia at Taliesin West against his wishes. He didn’t evven want a headstone.

On the house tour you also see what used to be a barn and is now used as apartments for those who studied under Wright and still live on the property as well as staff.

It is a trip worth doing if you like architecture! Enjoy the images.

Cheers,

Richard

The Annular Solar Eclipse 2021

June 14, 2021
CanonGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLighthouse BeachRichard Mack PhotographySolar Eclipse

This morning’s sunrise and the end of the “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse from Lighthouse Beach in Evanston. It was a beautiful morning to watch nature once again remind us how cool it is. This video was done over the 38 minutes of the end of the eclipse as the moon slipped by the edge of the sun. I compress it down to two minutes.

For those interested it was shot on a Canon 5D IV with the Canon 300mm lens with a 2x convertor making it 600mm. As the sun and moon drifted out of the top of the frame I would move the camera so there are several sequences. A 15 stop ND Filter was used once above the lake and in the sky only.

Enjoy!

#thesweetwaterseas #canon5div #evanston #lakemichigan #greatlakes #solareclipse #solareclipse2021 #naturephotography #evanstonmade #chicago #Illinoistourism #abc7chicago #artofchicago #annulareclipse #chicagosunrise #lighthousebeach #canonusa #nature #naturephotography #chicagonorthshore #discoverearth #visualambassadors #nightsky #northshoreofchi #chicagophotographer #enjoyillinois #onlinechicago #igerschicago #bestogthegreatlakesstate #bestofthegreatlakes #evanstonmade #earthpix    

Vernal Equinox Sunrise 2021

March 26, 2021
Canonchanging lightenvironmentLake MichiganLighthouse BeachRichard Mack PhotographySunrisetime-lapseTimelapse+viewVideo

My birthday is always either the last day of winter or more often the first day of spring – the vernal equinox. So this year I decided to go on down to my favorite beach on Lake Michigan and capture the sun rising on this first spring morning. I had one camera set up for a low wide angle time-lapse and 4K video with a 600mm lens. Once you have captured the sunrise you have some time to shoot a few other shots to use. You can never have enough shots to use!

The time-lapse camera was using Timelapse+ app which does a great job of changing the exposures smoothly when combined with its software and Lightroom to make final adjustments for a smooth transition seamless. Both camera’s are Canon 5D Mark IV’s the wide angle lens is the 16-35mm. The 600 lens was a combination of the Canon 300 and the 2x convertor. OK, enough geekdome. Enjoy! Richard

#thesweetwaterseas #greatlakes #lakemichigan #freashwater #equinox #canon5D4 #timelapse+view #richardmackphoto