timescapes

After Yosemite, we were two weeks behind on data backup and processing, so it was a real blessing when friend Tony Rowell offered to let us park the “Mobile Production Studio” in front of his house in Bishop for three weeks, and let us live and operate out of a beautiful 4-bedroom additional house he has on his property. This allowed us to catch up on a lot of business- and producing-related tasks, to get totally backed up on data protection and gear, and to operate out of a secure, comfortable base in a perfect staging location along legendary Highway 395. Thanks, Tony!

Here is a taste of our adventures over these past couple of weeks.

We chose correctly, because about an hour after that location-scouting video, we lucked out on some epic lenticular clouds near Alabama Hills

Then, like the next day, we saw another huge lenticular and raced out to film it. I often use my truck to block the wind.

Chris and Shawn Reeder in the moment.

As I said, in Bishop, we finally had a chance to get caught up on our gear and computer stuff:

Eric Kessler and I are designing a really cool new slider. More on this later.

After years of dreaming about filming this poignant place, I finally got down to business filming the monument at Manzanar

But I wasn't done yet. I am always looking for something special, so I shot it again a couple nights later.

But I STILL wasn't done. I filmed Manzanar for a third night, looking for something extraordinary. I will probably shoot it again several more times until I am satisfied.

Chris M and Nilo working on a camBLOCK astro move.

Next up, we filmed photographer Jeff Sullivan's beautiful daughter Nicole in a meadow full of wild Iris flowers. Cinevate sent this Atlas slider to test and it performed very well.

Haha, as you can see, these working conditions are horrendous!

Instant feedback. All of these meadow photos were shot by Nilo.

Nicole did an amazing job just being a free spirit, and the Red MX camera captured the images beautifully at 50 frames per second.

We happened to be in Bishop for a big rodeo event, so we grabbed the Red MX and had ourselves a good ole' time.

My new favorite sport: Steer Wrasslin'!

The Red camera allowed us to film this in slow-motion at 3K resolution.

After all that city slickin', it was time to get back to nature, with a two-night camping trip to Troy Meadows. As you can see, I need a bigger truck. ;^)

One of the most epic campsites I know in California.

Whenever I need extra luck on a shoot, I wear this incredibly bad ass t-shirt I picked up at a truck stop.

You thought that shirt was a joke, right? Not at all! This rainbow was the result, only the second time I have ever worn that shirt!

My camBLOCK 3-axis motion-control system bathing in the morning light after working all night.

Location scouting at the Ancient Bristlecone Forest

A single frame from an 880-frame timelapse we shot that night.

So here's a toast to you, Eastern Sierras. We had a blast!

Next up, we are leaving for the High Sierras in the morning!

We had an awesome visit to Yosemite National Park in late May & early June, thanks to our gracious host Steve Bumgardner, aka “Yosemite Steve”: http://twitter.com/YosemiteSteve

The trip started with a real bang, literally, during the long drive from Palm Springs to Yosemite, when one of the tires on our 30-foot Toyhauler trailer blew out.

I actually drove like 20 miles on this thing without realizing it!

Thankfully, AAA sent someone out to fix it. After the tire blowout, my trailer brakes went out right when we crossed into Yosemite. I had to ride 1st and 2nd gears all the way into Yosemite Valley Next up, I had to maneuver the “Death Star” trailer through some crazy obstacles to get it parked at the Lower Pines campground in Yosemite Valley.

The Force was strong with me that day!

So after all of that nonsense, we finally got down to some filming!

Rainbows near El Cap. That's the Canon 70-200mm

Filming the photographers who flock to Tunnel View at Yosemite

Yosemite Steve tries his hand on the Red MX camera, with Chris M pulling iris

A pretty epic little waterfall scene we shot on Red

Chris M prepping gear at our camp

Steve supervises another waterfall shoot

Timelapsing the crowds at Tunnel View, with help from Edie Howe and Jeff Sullivan

When the weather got iffy, we went to Plan B: drinking lots of beer. Drew Walker, Tony Rowell, Steve Bumgardner's eyes and hat

Filming at Glacier Point with Chris M, Steve and Drew. We had an epic night up there, with 6 Canon cameras rocking various astro timelapses until 4AM

Memorial Day weekend madness. The unwashed masses had arrived!

Wimps! Girly men!

Red MX frame-grab of girl riding a bike through a meadow

One of the main goals of this early-summer trip was to film “Moonbows” on the waterfalls at Yosemite, which can mainly be done in May and June. We hooked up with well-known Flickr photographer and location expert Jeff Sullivan for several nights of attempting to capture these elusive moonbows. It was a lot of fun.

Moonbow, shot on Canon 70-200mm f/2.8

As cool as the moonbows were, probably the highlight of the Yosemite trip for me was the afternoon we spent filming wild bears in the meadows. All credit goes to Tony Rowell (http://www.tonyrowell.com), who spotted the bears and radioed us: “We got bears!…. turn around!” It was an incredible rush — a natural high — being out so close to the bears and filming them.

Red + Bears = a great afternoon

It was a sublime experience filming these bears. I am not going to reveal the best shots we got until the film, or at least the trailer ;^)

Tony got some beautiful still shots and even timelapses(!) of these bears, then snapped a photo of me and Chris coming back from the filming:

Beautiful

Swapping war stories and feeling euphoric after our bear encounter

Tony got both of those shots on his dad Galen’s (http://www.mountainlight.com/rowellg.html) old, beat-up, scratched Nikkor 300mm.

Galen's battle-scarred 300mm

Shooting waterfalls on the Red camera at 50 frames per second:

Next up, the Eastern Sierras!!!!

Some behind-the-scenes pics and videos from April and May in Palm Springs and Nevada.

camBLOCK 3-axis motion-control system doing a push-in dolly move on a blooming Mojave Yucca at 4AM

Canon 5D Mark II mounted on my Tundra for some astro drivelape action in north Palm Springs at my favorite wind turbines

Gorgeous morning after a long night of astro drivelaping.

Amazing clouds I captured in Palm Springs on a lucky day

My camera captured this surreal pic of me setting up an astro drivelapse shot

Testing camBLOCK moco system in my trailer

Intermediate dolly in action

camBLOCK shooting at sunset

1 Man. 2 Dollies.

My headlights flashed this tree as I drove away from the camBLOCK setup. We drove half a mile away to enjoy a campfire

Using my iPhone 3Gs to predict when and where the sun was going to rise

These girls seemed amused to see us out so early with all our cameras.

Canon 5D Mark II on Manfrotto sticks and ball head

Me and Chris with some down time at the so-called Mobile Production Studio

Location scouting at Salton Sea

Shooting on Red MX camera at Salton Sea

Red MX looking through the Duclos 80-200mm PL-converted Nikon lens

Chris thought he was staring in a Vincent Laforet video.

Next up, we are leaving for Yosemite tonight for two weeks in the park with Steve Bumgardner!

Kessler Party in Vegas with Laforet, Bloom, Rodney Charters, Dan Chung, Tyler Ginter, Khalid Mohtaseb, Tom Guilmette, Zacuto's Steve Weiss and Sue, etc. I'm standing between Laforet and Ginter

After years of wanting to attend NAB (National Association of Broadcasters conference) in Vegas, this year, I couldn’t resist any longer. My work was being featured in Canon’s “HD Theater” in the main convention hall, and there were just too many people I wanted to finally meet, and sponsors I wanted to thank. After a grueling 10-hour drive hauling the 30ft trailer from Lake Powell down to Coachella, I raced back to Vegas to NAB. Almost immediately, I was able to meet a lot of the major players from Canon USA, including (the real) Chuck Westfall and Amy Kawadler. The strangest part for me, was the fact that several times I was stopped in the hotel or on the convention floor with “Tom?? THE Tom Lowe from Timescapes??” *Blush* I am a guy who spends most of his time sitting on camping chairs under stars and trees in remote places. I was quite surprised that anyone even knew who the hell I was.

I got to meet some of the real luminaries of new digital cinema, including Dan Chung, Philip Bloom, Rodney Charters, Alex Buono, Khalid Mohtaseb, Jon Rawlinson, etc. I figured most of my time at NAB would be spent eye-balling new gear and cameras. But in fact, 95% of my time was spent just meeting people and saying hi.

Wednesday night, Eric Kessler of Kessler Cranes threw what was supposed to be a small dinner party for just a few of us, but quickly turned into a fairly epic little gathering (photo above). By night’s end, we were at Gustav’s bar at the Paris hotel having drinks with Laforet, Chung, Charters, etc.

NAB pics…

Crazy Cineflex Mad Max camera car from helicopter filming god Ron Chapple

Philip Bloom shows off his better side at Kessler party

Drinks with Vince, Dan, Matt Jeppsen and Rodney

Dan Chung, out for the count! That 60oz piña colada is no joke

From the frying pan of NAB, straight into the flames at Coachella! Dan Chung and Drew Walker joined me immediately after NAB for three days of filming at the Coachella music festival. Needless to say, this was a bit of a culture shock after the previous six weeks of filming cactus and joshua trees out in remote deserts. First of all there were gorgeous women everywhere. And the music.. wow!

Coachella pics…

The wristband

Dan rockin the Red One MX digital cinema camera

Crazy stuff at Do Lab stage

Trying to film people in various states of ecstasy

Dan was kind enough to bring me a highly prized Canon coffee mug!

Here are two frame grabs from the Red footage we shot… all of it was filmed at 3K RAW 50 frames per second…

Hula Hoop at 50 frames per second...

This girl was AMAZING. She had me mesmerized the whole time I was filming her

Next up, I am heading to Nevada soon to film for about a week to ten days, for a big new Nevada State Museum project. This will be a high-tech museum with video walls. I believe it will be built on the Vegas strip. I will use the earnings to supplement the modest “Southwest Light” budget, and will also be able to use the clips in my film.

Dustin doing a timelapse move at Coachella

I wanted to say a special thank you to my spring intern, Dustin Kukuk. Simply put, I couldn’t have done what I did over the last six weeks without Dustin. His enthusiasm, humor, hard work and artistic ideas helped push me in new directions and motivate me to work even harder myself. For a guy with little camping or timelapse experience, Dustin took to it like a duck to water. How many bonfires did we huddle around while the Canon cameras were tucked away in some nearby valley shooting timelapse until 3am? How many miles of pitch-black landscapes did we stumble across to check on the dolly without ruining the shot with flashlights? How many nights did we freeze massive amounts of balls in sub-freezing temps sleeping out in vast deserts on open cots? How many times did we rock “Dubside of the Moon” in breathtaking locations under epic stars? It was awesome, my friend. Hope you learned something. I did.

And just remember your promise…. to wheel me out to the Holy Land when I’m 90 years old for one last cold beer, bonfire, and timelapse shoot!

Timescapes: “Death is the Road to Awe” from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

This is some production footage from our first six weeks of principle photography on “Southwest Light.”

Mobile Production Studio

Tom on Red MX with Duclos 80-200mm

Red on shore of Lake Powell

People watching at 200mm

On Thursday, me and Dustin (who took all these blog pics by the way) went back out to the “Holy Land” for one last hurrah. We arrived at the remote location before sunset, scouted, and got our first dolly move off around 9pm. The next dolly move we started about 11pm. By 3am, we were freezing some serious balls in the sub-freezing temps, not to mention barely being able to stay awake around our little campfire. We wrapped the final dolly move around 5am, just as the sun was lighting up the sky before sunrise. Only one thing kept us going.. thoughts of hauling ass to McDonalds for some breakfast sandwiches, hashbrowns and coffee! That was pretty much all we talked about around the fire from 4am on…. Hahahaha.

As you can see in the above photos, the weather has taken a turn for the better here at Lake Powell!! Today was sunny and warm. I just soaked it up all day, messing around with new gear out on our sunny little patio. Check out this ridiculously awesome “timelapse crane” that Eric Kessler from Kessler Cranes built for me. I cannot wait to try it out on a windless night at Joshua Tree, for example:

New Kessler “Timelapse Crane” from Timescapes Behind the Scenes on Vimeo.

We have an epic 9-hour drive to Coachella music fest coming up on Monday. I’m not looking forward to that. Once I drop the trailer and Dustin off at the artist campground at Coachella, I am zooming over to Vegas for 2 or 3 nights to schmooze, see some of my clips in two different Canon reels, pick up the new camBLOCK dolly axis, and attend the Red party. Should be crazy being around all those people, sounds and lights after spending nearly 2 months out in these beautiful, quiet, remote locations.

Our new campground

Trying to film in 30mph winds

We made it to Page, AZ a few days ago. Our trailer is basically right on Lake Powell. The weather has been extremely bad, with 50mph winds and grey skies, but we’ve managed to get a few really nice shots done. The photos below were taken from Highway 89 just south of Page, overlooking the upper Grand Canyon, when some seriously crazy light rolled in just before sunset!

Breaking out the big guns

Into the light

Using my truck to block the wind

On Friday, LA timelapse legend Drew Walker from 599 Productions came out to join us. We immediately took him directly to the top secret “Holy Land” location, and judging by his reaction, he was not disappointed. I wish I could share some of the photos and behind-the-scenes videos and timelapses we made, but I am going to keep that location secret until at least this Fall. I am working on a big follow-up to “Mountain Light” that will be 8 minutes in length and will contain many shots from the “Holy Land” and our entire year on the road.

I know I have been slow on this blog. It’s mainly due to the fact that I have been struggling to get all the gear together, figured out and working. But I am vowing to do a lot more updates as the film progresses, so stay tuned.

camBLOCK system preview from Timescapes Behind the Scenes on Vimeo.

After a series of delays and crucial accessory parts being shipped late to RV parks that we had already left the week before (I’m talking about you, “Price Pros” ), we’ve finally got the camBLOCK pan & tilt motion-control system up and running. It’s very, very slick. I should be getting the dolly axis at NAB around April 13th. With the full 3-axis system, this will be a serious game-changer for the most advanced, high-end timelapse shots I am after.

This thing is super advanced and can do all kinds of crazy stuff. I’ll make some lengthy, on-location videos so you guys can see exactly what it’s capable of.

After a grueling 30-day delay on receiving the Red One Mysterium X digital cinema camera, the Eagle has finally landed! I hope to break new ground with this (and its forthcoming replacement the Epic X) camera over the coming year. Because I plan to finish my film at 1080p, I will probably film a lot of my Red MX footage at 50 frames per second at 3K resolution, for that nice poetic slow-motion effect.

Also, two days ago we sought out and found an extremely rare and mind-blowing “secret” location here in Northern Arizona. When we arrived, we could not believe our eyes. Our jaws hit the ground. We shot 4 timelapse dolly moves and one panning timelapse out there the first night, and we haven’t even gotten warmed up yet. This location must be among the most amazing on earth. We have named it simply, “The Holy Land.”