Beautiful Night Sky Timelapse Photography of Utah

Photography Tips  •  Time-lapse Photography

Many photographers complain about not having enough time in their schedule to shoot for themselves. Clients’ work takes priority over their own personal work, and they soon find themselves getting bogged down. Enter JJ Dreier and Django Greenblatt-Seay, two mid-western guys who spend their free time shooting timelapses around the country. Their latest night timelapse of Utah only took 10 days to shoot. Not a year, or a couple months, but 10 days. Though these two photographers spent their days shooting consecutively, you could easily break up these 10 days among one month and finish a photography project of your own:

The cameras that Dreier and Greenblatt-Seay used include the Nikon D600, Canon 5D MKII, Canon 6D, Canon 7D, and the Canon T2i. They also took advantage of a Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly, which enabled them to achieve the fluid camera movements in their sequences.

A Few Tips on Shooting Timelapses at Night

• Low ISO. Use a lower ISO setting to avoid noise in your images, but keep it high enough so that you have a fast enough shutter speed to avoid star trails.

• Wide Angle Lens. A wide lens will not only give you a greater view of the night sky and surrounding landscape, it will also allow you to use slower shutter speeds while still keeping stars sharp.

• Stay Away From Lights. The closer you are to any artificial light sources, the poorer your night sky will appear. Try getting away from the city to capture your night sky images.

• Bring Food and Drinks. Though this is not really a technical tip, it is important. Dreier and Greenblatt-Seay admit to drinking plenty of Red Bulls and other energy drinks to stay awake and alert during their nighttime shoots. You wouldn’t want to travel 100 miles away from the nearest city for a clear nighttime sky just to realize you forgot to pack any food.

The fluid camera movements make this timelapse more dynamic

Of course, you can achieve other things in a 10-day time frame. Look at your schedule an set aside some time for your personal photography projects.