Category: Quiet Light Publishing

Time-lapse of clouds and water

February 13, 2018
cloudsenvironmenteveningfilmGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLake MichiganLighthouse Beachnature photographyRichard Mack PhotographyThe Sweetwater SeasThe Sweetwater Seastime-lapsewaterwaterwaves

 

I’ve been shooting time-lapse for awhile now and am always amazed at how cool it can be when you see the final results. Working on The Sweetwater Seas – A Documentary About the Great Lakes,  I have done a fair amount of time-lapse with moving clouds, stars and the water. The other day here in Evanston it was cloudy and very windy until about an hour before sunset when the clouds started breaking apart and moving out over Lake Michigan. I ran down to Lighthouse Beach to try a time-lapse but this time using a 1 second exposure to make the waves smoother and the clouds wispy as they moved across the sky. It was a nice result which I shall use more in the future – maybe even with longer exposures of 5-10 seconds. As those who shoot either still images or time-lapse, which after-all is just a collection of still images shot at a timed interval, shooting at sunrise / sunset can be a difficult exposure challenge as the light changes. There are cable releases now that you can tie into your cellphone, tablet or laptop which can allow you to ramp the exposures along the way but I didn’t use that this time as it is new to me. I did adjust the exposures over time by 1/3 of a stop and then in Lightroom adjusted the images even more to even out the exposures even more.

The tech specs. The camera is the Canon 5D Mark IV with the 16-24 F2.8 lens. The exposures ranged from 1 second at F19 to f11. There are 538 images. Each shot was 3 seconds apart so with a 1 second exposure there is 2 seconds between shots. It took 27 minutes to shot this 20 second time-lapse which is at 24 frames er second.

One more thing about shooting a time-lapse is the perspective it gives you. Once you have set everything up and started the camera shooting it becomes your time. Instead of constantly looking for the next image you can just sit there and quietly reflect on what nature is putting in front of you. A peaceful time for me when sitting by the Great Lakes. This was no different. I also had the place almost to myself as only a few folks came down walking there dogs or at the halfway point of a run they were doing. All stopped and gazed at the sunset as well before returning to whence they had come from. People enjoy the Great Lakes – a precious resource for us all.

 

The Sweetwater Seas in 100 Words

June 7, 2016
Great Lakes ProjectRichard Mack PhotographyThe Sweetwater SeasThe Sweetwater SeasThe Sweetwater SeasVideowater

The Sweetwater Seas in 100 Words is a quick introduction to the feature-length documentary film. In it we reveal the beauty, majesty, and challenges faced by the Great Lakes, which we will cover fully in the hour-long documentary. We plan to enter this short version in this year’s “100-Word Film Festival.”

We have released several quick and delicious film clips for our documentary The Sweetwater Seas – North America’s Great Lakes so far and plan on releasing many more this summer which will be small episodes from those who live and work on the Great Lakes as we tell their stories. Some will be about the challenges the lakes face and have faced in the past, some about historic past events on the lakes, travelling the lakes and some will be about the beauty and majesty these lakes encompass.

THE SWEETWATER SEAS is a feature documentary that integrates science and fine-art videography to explore one of North America’s wonders. The film examines the latest thinking about the environmental sustainability of the Great Lakes Watershed and seeks to engage viewers into making a difference. Although 42 million people live within the Watershed, most have never been around their own lake, much less all five. We will take them on a voyage of discovery to rival Champlain’s.

The project will reveal the natural landscape and its geological history, the watershed’s cityscapes, and its vast industrial and agricultural areas. Humans started living near these immense bodies of water tens of thousands of years ago, but it is only in the last few centuries that human activity has impacted the environment of the lakes. To engage viewers THE SWEETWATER SEAS will offer both images of great beauty in the natural world that surrounds the lakes as well as video of the tides of pollution and invasive species that threaten this magnificent resource. By using the voices of scientists, environmentalists, political leaders, engaged corporations and everyday people around the lakes, the story of these extraordinary bodies of water—their history, their importance and threats to their health—will be explored and explained.

We hope you’ll enjoy each and every segment.

Cheers,

Richard

Lake Superior – Two Winters

April 5, 2016
Great Lakes ProjectLake SuperiorNight sky time-lapseQuiet Light PublishingRichard Mack PhotographyThe Sweetwater Seastime-lapseWinter Landscape Photography

Two winters, drastically different weather. In March, 2013 on Lake Superior, it was below 0°F. The lake was shrouded in ice and snow. The same week in 2016 the ice had all but left the lake, and little snow remained in the forests.

This past March I spent a week travelling around Lake Superior. It happened to be the exact same week I had been up there in 2013. The big difference was in 2013 we had a very cold winter in the Midwest and the Great Lakes were 90% frozen over. This year was a very mild winter with less than 14% of ice coverage on the Great Lakes. I had wanted to get back up to areas I had not been too in 2013, so even with a mild winter I headed north to shoot for The Sweetwater Seas – A Documentary About North America’s Great Lakes. We have put together a short film from the trip which compares the two winters.

Enjoy!

Richard

For more on The Sweetwater Seas – A Documentary About North America’s Great Lakes just use the link – The Sweetwater Seas

Lake Mead National Recreation Area

April 30, 2015
Lake MeadNational Parksnature photographyNevadaRichard Mack PhotographyRichard Mack's BlogThe Sweetwater Seaswaterwater

Images of Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, 2015

It is said the great wars of this century will be fought over water.

The first week of April I was out in Nevada and shot images around Lake Mead which show not only the scarcity of the water with Lake Mead being at its lowest level since Hoover Dam was built in the 1930’s. The lake level has dropped almost 100’ as of 2015, a vast amount of water for a lake which is when full 110 miles long. Harbors have been moved ¼ to almost a mile from where the shorelines were and some harbors just plain closed.

Images of Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, 2015

You can tell how far down it is by seeing the white “bath tub ring” as it is called around the edge of the entire lake. Turning the camera the other way you can also see why this is a National Recreation Area. Its landscape is both arid and beautiful. And gives you a feeling for what we covered over in the landscape by building Hoover Dam and covering over these valleys to create Lake Mead. This lake supplies not only power from the generators in the dam but controls water flow to Nevada, Arizona, California and Mexico via the release of the water down the Colorado River.

Images of Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, 2015

I covered this area as part of The Sweetwater Seas, a documentary on the health and beauty of all five of the Great Lakes. Currently there is an international treaty which protects the lakes from losing water to the west via pipelines. The west is facing the worst water shortage in history.

To see more of the images you can use this link: Lake Mead

Richard

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