The video is shot in the northern parts of Norway, Finland and Sweden during autumn 2011, winter and spring 2012.
For those who do not know, auroras are caused by solar activity. This is shortly visualized in the video. Our suns activity varies in 11 year cycles, and we are closing solar maximum (solar max) for our current solar cycle somewhere between 2012-2013, and solar activity has clearly been picking up. The beginning of 2011 was lots of clouds but weather improved late 2011 and out 2012. This video contains recordings from some of the most spectacular auroral displays I have ever witnessed, and I have seen a few.
For this video Ole C. Salomonsen did shoot approx 150.000 exposures from sept.2011 – april.2012 using Canon DSLR’s and various wide angle lenses. To achieve pannings Ole has used the fantastic Stage Zero + MX2 controller time-lapse gear from Dynamic Perception.
The video is a merge of two parts; the first part contains some more wild and aggressive auroras, as well as a few milky way sequences, hence either auroras are moving fast because they are, or they are fast due to motion of the milky way / stars. Still, some of the strait up shots are very close to real-time speed, although auroras mostly are slower, she can also be FAST! The second part has some more slow and majestic auroras, where I have focused more on composition and foreground. The music should give you a clear indication of where you are :)
The audio in this clip includes a remix of the Jim Guthrie song “The Ballad of The Space Babies” from S&S LP, the remix is by Scntfc and the full song will be available on Scntfc’s Moon Grotto 7″ in the near future.
Take a dark journey into the forgotten, where time stands still. The paint has peeled off the walls and the only occupants are the souls of those left behind. This is the Asylum.
Opened in the early 1920s, the Asylum closed down and was abandoned decades ago. Rooms remain untouched – left as they were when the last of the employees departed. These buildings stand as a testament to the horrors and miss treatment that patients had to endure during the time of its operation.
This project is a combination of traditional HDR, tone-mapping, and standard time-lapse techniques. With the use of the Dynamic Perception Stage Zero and a Merlin head, we were able to capture the grit and the grime of this wondrous place, like it had never been captured before. Every single frame in this production is a still photograph, no video was shot. It took nearly 35,000 individual frames over 7 months to complete this project.
Equipment:
x2 Canon 5D Mark 2
Canon 16-35mm F/2.8 II
Canon 24-105mm F/4
Canon 50mm F1.4
Dynamic Perception Stage Zero + Merlin Head
Produced in:
Adobe After Effects CS5.5
Adobe Light Room 3
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5