Earlier this year, Bill Blevins of Draper, Utah captured high dynamic range video of a storm rolling over Utah Lake. You should watch the short clip if you haven’t already. Either way, utahlake.gov caught up with Blevins recently for his opinion on Utah Lake, amateur photography in general, and what he likes most about the area as a Michigan transplant.
Why’d you pick Utah Lake as your time lapse subject? Do you plan on filming it again?
I do some volunteer biology field work in the Eureka area that involves monitoring hawk nests, so we drive by Utah Lake several times from early spring through summer. As the seasons change, unsettled weather passes through and fascinating time lapse sequences can be captured. The lake with mountain backdrop is an excellent subject for landscape photography. I’ll be capturing more from this area in the future and would be willing to share it with utahlake.gov.
How long did it take to record video?
The time lapse captures about an hour of the passing storm. I had the camera capture three frames of differing exposures every four seconds. Each of the three images has different exposure times so one image will have more detail in the shadows and another will have detail in the bright highlights of the image. I run the images through some software that combines the images into one that shows detail in all areas of the image. Those images are then dropped into Adobe Premiere which renders them into a movie clip that can be uploaded. I also wrote a little music to go along with it. I lost track of the time I spent on this one, but it made for a few fun evenings.
How long have you been filming landscapes? What other places have you enjoyed shooting?
I’ve been more serious about photography since moving from Michigan to Utah in 2005. I found a job here in the tech-friendly valley after visiting southern Utah a few times prior. The state offers so many great locations and weather conditions. Some other local favorites are Antelope Island, Dead Horse Point State Park, and anywhere in West Desert.
Part of the goal of utahlake.gov is to help promote the lake as a valuable local resource and recreation point. Is there anything in particular you like about Utah Lake that you could share?
Aside from the recreation and great views, it does provide a lot of valuable wildlife habitat, making it good for photographers and birders. Also there are many dramatic vantage points to view the lake, especially to the west along Highway 68. After reading more about the lake, it has some interesting history that demonstrates how we’ve gotten smarter about conservation and taking care of the resources that make living here a good thing.
photo credit: utah.com