corner of the sketchbook

shooting stars

I taped the trigger button down on my Canon AE-1 to get this photo, with a little pebble under the tape to engage the trigger.  That blur around the tripod is me shooting time-lapse footage of stars out at my cousin's place in rural Indiana last month with my Bolex.  I shot frame by frame, 30 second exposures or more, some up to about 5 minutes each, holding the trigger button down for the duration of each exposure.  This was the coldest weather I have ever tried this in, it was well below freezing.  I dressed for it with snowpants and winter boots and thick mittens.  I did this for hours at a time, and had to work out a method where I'd switch hands for exposures because the longer I did it the more feeling I lost in my fingers.  My coffee froze, actually turned to ice.

  

By the end of my first night doing this, I turned on my headlamp and found that all my gear including my lens was covered in frost.  By the end of the second night shooting, my feet were almost completely numb.  I had originally planned on shooting this out in South Dakota, and after experiencing what it's like trying to do this in the cold, I was really glad I was only an hour from home.  The shots turned out, even the one where the lens frosted up.  Really excited about that.  They were the hardest shots to shoot of this entire film project.  This was the final roll of 16mm film exposed for Hangs Upon Nothing.  I was really surprised by how red one of the stars that makes up Orion turned out in the footage.  It's completely red. I plan on opening the movie with shots from this last roll of film. 

this project on fb: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hangs-Upon-Nothing-a-16mm-surf-film/246361802068338