Mt. Rainer - The hours before and when "They" arrived.

Robbug

This may be slightly long, but I thought it was quite interesting how the night began and then ended. I had decided to head up to Rainier as the weather reports were great and Clear Skies reported good conditions: (actual conditions right now in Mt. Rainier) (www.cleardarksky.com)

<a href=http://cleardarksky.com/c/SnrsPtWAkey.html&gt;
<img src="http://cleardarksky.com/csk/getcsk.php?id=SnrsPtWA"></a&gt;

If you go there you can find the conditions of just about anywhere in the US and it is very very accurate as we will see :rofl

So anyways, I arrive at Sunrise at around 8PM as the sun was setting and noted that Rainier was clouded over. I walked down to Emmons Point and this is what I see:


None to happy about the situation I went back to my car and decided to trust in the Clear Skies report. As nautical twilight began, the skies started to open up (insert angelic music here) and the blue hour was upon me:


As the night wore on, the occasional car would come through and toss a wrench into my nirvana but overall it was mostly quiet...until...(insert "DUM DUMM DUM!")...

Then this mini-cooper comes rolling in - lights blaring everywhere. I began grumbling. A few minutes later, these people started setting up next to me - mind you it's pitch black at the time - and started imaging. As I clicked and futz with my camera, I kept hearing Ron this and Ron that and a tutorial going on about capturing the milky way. I had to ask. Of all the luck and timing, I had run into a mini-dgrin outing! :clap

I was happy to meet Ron, Travis, Steph, and Shimon (Dan apparently was snoring away). We all imaged for an hour or so before calling it a morning. From that, I was able to capture one that I am somewhat ok with. I still have a ways to go but this was the best one I could get. I think I was just too impatient But there is next time:


As they left, I had a hard time sleeping. I was too wired. So I unpacked all the gear again - fired up some coffee. I adjusted the camera and locked the remote down for a timelapse. 180 frames, 25 sec, ISO 3200, f/2.8, and a lot of hope.

(For the HD version click on HD and follow it out. -recommended-)(HD - you can see the nutzo's climbing the mountain and a small meteor shower at the very end - it's quick)

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At 4AM I rushed to pack up and get over to meet everyone at Tipsoo Lake. I caught up with the group and met Daniel, who seemed well rested and started shooting.

Final picture of the day for me:

It was a pleasure to meet all of you. Ron I may see you Thursday night for the Perseids . I know I will have two cameras going for some timelapses at Sunrise.

Oh ya - August 12th after 10pm - Perseids meteor shower from the NE just above the constellation Perseus

Marc Muench

Great post and especially that time laps

scole

Great set and timelapse!

I just might see you both there Thursday night. Seriously considering being there for that..

ian408

That was a great timelapse piece. The music was appropriate too

Niepce

Breathtaking timelapse. Really.

Andy

Big ups - nice work!

dlplumer

Sensational time lapse clap

Tharhawk

I do love that time lapse. I've seen a few of those this week and I haven't ever seen any before. I really like them.

sgonen

Great stuff Rob. Good meeting you - time lapse is cool.

WillCAD

Wow.

Great time-lapse, and I also love your final shot of the day.

Times like this, I hate living in the middle of the East Coast Megalopolis. We're lucky to be able to see Orion's Belt on a clear night, let alone meteors.

I've never seen the Milky Way. I need to move out west for a few years...

kris10jo

the timelapse is amazing!

schmoo

Nice work, Rob! Sorry about the headlights... I'm sure Ron's truck would have been a match for an elk dancing across the road, but with a Mini it's safer to just let 'em know you're coming. (Or something)

The time lapse is even better seeing it big and on the screen. Wish you could have stayed a couple more days, but it's good that you made it home in one piece.

Awais Yaqub

Inspiring work!
Time lapse is so beautiful!

bryanj87

Nice shots, love the time lapse!

Icebear

As we used to say in the late sixties - "Ohhh . . . wowww . . .maannn . . ."

Icebear

The HD version of that time lapse is mind blowing. You CAN see the headlamps of climbers on both the Disappointment Cleaver and the Emmons Glacier routes. I've climbed the Emmons route and fled off the DC route, way before digital SLRs :D.

Robbug

@Marc and Andy - thanks for the comments! It means alot to get some positive feedback from some of the most experienced people on the board.

@scole - yes I will be at Sunrise before sunset You will see a harried guy setting up a telescope and 2 cameras and chasing 4 kids etc. So if your looking for peace and quiet initially - either avoid Sunrise altogether or park at least 300yards away heheheh. There are better places to get a nice comp as the shower will be from the north and Rainier is to the south at Sunrise.
I think Paradise or Reflection Lakes would be a better photo op. Personally I am going be doing triple duty with observations and photography with the family.

@Ian408 - I used the work of Kevin Macleod at www.incompetech.com. I remixed one song with Garage Band to get 30secs exactly. I think in the future I will just sit down at my keyboard and compose my own. I plunk on it all the time much to the dismay of my cats.

@Tharhawk - yes it seems to be catching on quite a bit now that we have these high ISO cameras and what not. If you willing to burn your shutter a bit ($2500/150,000 actuations rated = $0.02 per shutter click - just sayin) then it is well worth it. Your night work is quite inspiring by the way. I enjoy the photos you post!

@Niepce, WillCAD, kris10jo, Awais, bryanj87 - thanks for the comments. I appreciate you looking.

@Icebear - it is nuts watching those climber make the ascent. So....slow. My old boss told me it was painful when he did it.

@schmoo, dplumer, and sgonen - thanks for the comments. I'm glad I bumped into you guys. It is great to see your shots and compare it to mine. I am in and need to figure out how to just slow down and read the scene vice try everything in the book. I think that is why I like timelapses so much - you HAVE to make sure all your ducks are in a row or a whole night is irrevocably blown. So you slow down. I am always running around in my other photography jobs that it's hard to just take a breath and really enjoy the moment.

coscorrosa

Robbug wrote: »

As the night wore on, the occasional car would come through and toss a wrench into my nirvana but overall it was mostly quiet...until...(insert "DUM DUMM DUM!")...

Then this mini-cooper comes rolling in - lights blaring everywhere. I began grumbling. A few minutes later, these people started setting up next to me - mind you it's pitch black at the time - and started imaging. As I clicked and futz with my camera, I kept hearing Ron this and Ron that and a tutorial going on about capturing the milky way. I had to ask. Of all the luck and timing, I had run into a mini-dgrin outing!

That was just Ron referring to Ron in the third-person as Ron likes to do. I'm still kind of ticked that you didn't want my, er, Ron's autograph

Pretty amazing coincidence!

All the photos look good, but that time lapse is incredible, the clouds and the shadows on Rainier and the gradual lightening of the sky is fantastic.

I'll be shooting the Perseids from the Paradise area - haven't decided where exactly yet, but that's facing NE and you get this cool volcano in the foreground

coscorrosa

Robbug wrote: »

@Tharhawk - yes it seems to be catching on quite a bit now that we have these high ISO cameras and what not. If you willing to burn your shutter a bit ($2500/150,000 actuations rated = $0.02 per shutter click - just sayin) then it is well worth it. Your night work is quite inspiring by the way. I enjoy the photos you post!

You can get the shutter assembly replaced for less than the price of the body, I had to do that with my 20D, I forget how much it was but it was less than, say, a Gitzo CF tripod

What software did you use to create the timelapse? I might have to try one of those out.

Robbug

coscorrosa wrote: »

You can get the shutter assembly replaced for less than the price of the body, I had to do that with my 20D, I forget how much it was but it was less than, say, a Gitzo CF tripod

What software did you use to create the timelapse? I might have to try one of those out.

Heheh - wait till my wife sees what I just bought - B+W Kas polarizer (thanks to you guys I am tired of blueing my skies from Rainier in post), an R-strap and other odds and ends . She's gonna kill me. And when I grind my 20D into the ground here soon, I can only imagine the high pitched scream I will get when I have to tell her it's toast - but it will only cost less than the body

I used Aperture to mass enhance, devignette, etc. I then exported as max Jpeg and imported the sequence into Adobe Premiere Pro. I figured at 24 fps I had max 6 seconds of footage but I figured I had a little slop to slow it down to 30 secs. I tried to go directly from RAW into After Effects but I still have a lot to learn about that application.

You can also do it directly into Quicktime Pro pretty easily. Here's a great tutorial from Philip Bloom: http://vimeo.com/7127489

Robbug

coscorrosa wrote: »

That was just Ron referring to Ron in the third-person as Ron likes to do. I'm still kind of ticked that you didn't want my, er, Ron's autograph

Pretty amazing coincidence!

All the photos look good, but that time lapse is incredible, the clouds and the shadows on Rainier and the gradual lightening of the sky is fantastic.

I'll be shooting the Perseids from the Paradise area - haven't decided where exactly yet, but that's facing NE and you get this cool volcano in the foreground

Ya I got a kick outta that. I'll bring a print from the forums when we next meet so ya can sign it

Thanks - I spent a little too long on post and was wishing I had a decent polarizer with me.

Awesome - just remember you'll be looking a little later in the night for the radi of the shower to show. It's just above Perseus and will be low in the horizon. Your looking at midnight to 3 where it should be above Rainier. Either way you should still get some nice streaks. Good luck!

scole

Rob-

Guess I might run into then. I plan on showing up after 10pm or so. Ultimately I'm gonna crash out down at Sunrise Point since I want to set up for Friday's sunrise further down the ridge than at Sunrise proper.

BTW, that photo of you with your child in a baby backpack is hilarious.

Griffin

Yes ... very inspiring work.

AndMan

Great shots and the timelapse .... .

schmoo

Robbug wrote: »

Awesome - just remember you'll be looking a little later in the night for the radi of the shower to show. It's just above Perseus and will be low in the horizon. Your looking at midnight to 3 where it should be above Rainier. Either way you should still get some nice streaks. Good luck!

Capturing a meteor shower sounds quite a bit like a stakeout.

Not having seen one before, do you have minutes or hours to catch them, or are they over really fast?

AndMan

schmoo wrote: »

Capturing a meteor shower sounds quite a bit like a stakeout.

Not having seen one before, do you have minutes or hours to catch them, or are they over really fast?

From what I've read it's best seen between midnight and dawn, so a few hours. And at their peak they reckon 1-2 meteors per minute so 60-100 per hour.

schmoo

AndMan wrote: »

From what I've read it's best seen between midnight and dawn, so a few hours. And at their peak they reckon 1-2 meteors per minute so 60-100 per hour.

Pretty neat. I'll be checking back here this time tomorrow

ian408

schmoo wrote: »

Capturing a meteor shower sounds quite a bit like a stakeout.

Not having seen one before, do you have minutes or hours to catch them, or are they over really fast?

Check this out. It's saying this evening should be good providing it's clear out.

schmoo

ian408 wrote: »

Check this out. It's saying this evening should be good providing it's clear out.

Darn I hope there are lots of great photos of this posted tomorrow. It's a release night in Smugville

ian408

I keep going back to the timelapse. I don't know why but it's incredibly calming.

ian408

schmoo wrote: »

Darn I hope there are lots of great photos of this posted tomorrow. It's a release night in Smugville

Tomorrow will probably work too.