Seven Days on the Plains

One of my favorite things after a summer of chasing storms in Arizona is to release a short film of my time-lapse work during that time. I've released two of those now and I can't wait to see what happened this coming monsoon season.

Last year was the first time I was able to time-lapse while I chased outside of Arizona, on the central plains, which ended up being a very short film of a single, amazing storm near Booker, Texas: https://vimeo.com/67995158

This year on the plains, I wanted more time and more clips of the wide variety of weather out there. So between two trips in April and May, I spent a total of seven days in the central plains of this country, which included Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas. From I-70 to I-10. And everywhere in-between.

It was an amazing time and I essentially got something everyday we were out. Some days were amazing...like wall clouds with reported tornadoes approaching the Denver International Airport...or an awesome, red sunet on a marginal day in western Kansas. On one of our last days, it was a ridiculously blue hail core which you'll see in a few separate clips.

My journey wasn't solo...my buddy Andy Hoeland helped forecast and get us to the storms, and Matt Granz was a fellow photographer who made sure we pulled over at certain spots when I was too intent on chasing down a storm.

I brought along an eMotimo for the trip, but I forgot my power cord for the battery and wasn't able to get a replacement while out there. Regardless...most of the clips you see would have been lost if I'd taken even an extra few minutes setting up a panning head or dolly. Time-lapsing storms is a different beast than setting up for a Milky Way shot over the course of the night.

I used two Canon 5D Mark III's, along with a Canon 17-40, 16-35 and a Rokinon 14mm. A couple of Manfrotto tripods and mainly a Pixel Intervalometer along with a Promote Control when I broke the Pixel :)

This trip took us over 3000 miles in the course of those seven days. It was something I wont forget and I hope this film showcases a lot of the hard work that went into chasing the storms themselves, getting ourselves in the right spots for the best shots and recording them as quickly as I could.

If I have any regrets...it would be that I wish I would have seen another more picturesque supercell mothership and maybe a tornado.

On the first trip I also failed to clean my sensors, which resulted in a few dust spots. My second, five-day trip, I cleaned them before I went and during the trip. I struggle with dust spots, because if you spot remove in Lightroom, you can get funny results...so which is better? The dust spot or funky changing dots that might be even more noticeable?

I also used Adobe Premiere Pro for the first time ever and I have to say, it was a way better experience than editing in Final Cut Pro. In fact I'm uninstalling that here in a bit.

If you have any questions about this short film, how I captured it, edited it, etc., please ask below and I'll do my best to answer.

Hope you enjoy!

You can find some still photos from the trip over on my blog: http://www.mikeolbinski.com/theblog/

(Edited using Lightroom 5, LR Timelapse, Quicktime Pro 7 and Adobe Premiere Pro)

Видео Seven Days on the Plains канала Mike Olbinski