This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Not too long ago, I wrote about an awe-inspiring video that captured the night sky in an intriguing way, using timelapse to create "star trails" and to follow the objects in the night sky over Death Valley. Happily, I present to you a follow up, called Death Valley Dreamlapse 2. You will want to watch it in HD with headphones on for the best experience, and keep your eye out for a pink aurora at 1:36 and later in more detail at 2:22.
Gavin Heffernan with Sunchaser Pictures shared this about filming this follow-up video:
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"This time our timelapse adventure took place at the infamous sliding stones of Racetrack Playa Lakebed in Death Valley, where we got lots of cool shots of the stones themselves, as well as some epic starscape stuff -- including a desert aurora, crazy star trails, and an awesome milky way pass. The initial intention was for this all to be done in one shoot with the Dunes of Part 1 -- but time restrictions and work, etc. caused us to split up the shoots -- and so we visited the Racetrack on March 17-19th 2013 to film this second installment.
As you can see, it's a crazy place to shoot at, as the horizon is so strangely uneven/malleable. I don't know if the valley was cut by water or underground magma, but it's almost impossible to find a straight horizon. In many cases it took me 5 to 10 times as long as usual to try and "straighten" the camera."
It was a Vimeo Staff Pick this week, so you know it's a visual stunner. Learn more about details within the video and how it was shot at Gavin's Vimeo Page and watch this video for some behind the scenes footage.