Randy Halverson's DakotaLapse photography

It's not often that I feature someone else's photography here, but Randy Halverson's moving timelapse art is so unique that I felt compelled to point it out. Randy uses timers and computer-controlled motorized cameras to achieve a series of still pictures that not only show motion in the night sky, but also camera movement throughout a several-hour period condensed into a few minutes of viewing time.

Randy explained, "I really got interested in (this style of photography) after I saw Tom Lowe's "Mountain Light" on Vimeo. I thought the movement of the camera in addition to the timelapse gave it a real unique look." The central South Dakota landscape and night skies are also a breath of fresh air to the nature photography one often finds from the over-photographed national parks.

Storm chasing video is Randy's background. "I had been in stock footage for quite a while and was looking for something different other than just storm footage. I had an interest in astro photography but hadn't done any timelapse of it. It seems to appeal to a variety of people from seeing the comments," he said.

You can see a lot more of this incredible imaging at Randy's website - DakotaLapse.com.

Here are a couple of Randy's shots of the rigging that took these timelapses. The camera slowly slides up or down on the blue rail as it shoots a sequence of photos over long periods of time.