The Milky Way over Mt Grinnell [Timelapse]

I had previously shared a photo taken from one of my timelapse sequences I shot while I camped in the Many Glacier area of Glacier National Park. I finally got around to putting together the full timelapse that I shot while I was there. It was only a few days after the Supermoon, so I had only a short window of time to capture the Milky Way before the moon came out. You can see near the end of the video, as the moon rises from behind me, to light up the peaks and the rest of the scene.

I’ve always wanted to get a wonderful shot of the Milky Way with the mountains in the background, and a reflection off of a lake in the foreground. Unfortunately, due to the movement of the water in the aptly named, Swiftcurrent Lake, the reflections don’t come out very clear, but I guess that’s a project for another time!

This video was shot over a span of about 5 hours. I wasn’t quite as prepared for the cold as I thought I was, so my last couple hours, I was just trying to stay warm by moving and possibly dancing like nobody was watching. Luckily, it was pretty dark so I don’t think anyone else saw me. Next time, I’ll be sure to bring some gloves, a thermos of hot cocoa, and maybe a camp chair!

 

Hole-y Film Wholly Developed at Home

GW690II_Delta400_002

 

Finally got around to developing some film at home! Had a roll of 35mm film from this summer that I jury rigged to run in my Fuji GW690II (a 6×9 medium format rangefinder, colloquially called the “Texas Leica” due to it’s size), to get the exposed sprocket holes (hence the title). Since the camera normally expects a larger size film, I had to run a strip of paper in there so that the camera would cock the shutter. Unfortunately, the paper strip tore, so I only ended up with a couple of usable frames before the camera stopped cocking the shutter. Also, another downside… Since the film takes up a smaller portion of the frame, it’s really hard to compose (sorry about that eye patch in the photo below, Ashley).

 

GW690II delta400 001

 

Stand development with Rodinal was pretty easy. I used a dilution ratio of about 1:100, agitated at the beginning, and let it sit for an hour, while agitating halfway through. Rinsed, fixed, rinsed again, and hung to dry. While temperature doesn’t matter, try not to let it shift too much. I used water that was a little too warm to start (about 100 degrees f), and by the end, it dropped about 20 degrees. Which I think gave me some gradation in development (you can see some the bottom of the film is lighter). In any case, I’d say it was an overall success for my first time developing my own film in 20 years (and even then, had only done a couple rolls in high school)!

 

Ilford Delta 400. Scanned with Epson 4490.