This week, we celebrate Death Valley at night, enjoy another top 20 list, get a good reminder to slow down and take things in, and catch a couple of celebrities showing their support for one of America’s amazing landscapes, among other things.

1. Sunchaser Pictures did it again. They created another great timelapse video in Death Valley National Park, Death Valley Dreamlapse 2. Death Valley is not only the lowest point in North America, but this past February the International Dark-Sky Association also designated Death Valley as the world’s newest and largest “Gold Tier” International Dark Sky Park. This three-minute film celebrates how special the park is after the stars come out.
2. It’s smart to be slow. Facebook national park supporter Shari S. posted this to Yellowstone National Park’s Facebook page. Slowing down is always a good safety reminder, but John Muir said it best when asked about the word hike: “I don’t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains—not hike!” Don’t forget to slow down for the wildlife, but also to enjoy what the national parks can show you.
3. I love lists. More importantly, I love checking things off of my lists. But an ever-growing list of mine is my “amazing places to visit in my lifetime” list. CNN just published “20 of the world’s most beautiful World Heritage Sites,” and it wouldn’t be an accurate list without one of our most iconic national parks. What national parks have you yet to cross off?
4. Baby animals can help you on the job. I read a study once that taking a minute of each day to look at baby animals will increase productivity. Here is your dose of cute baby bison in Yellowstone National Park. I hope this improves your productivity.
5. I have a confession to make: I am addicted to infographics. REI just came out with a great one for Hiking the Beautiful USA. This infographic illustrates the scale of these amazing trails and shares tips for packing, too. Check it out and plan your next hike!
6. Celebrities pose for the canyons. Neil Young and Daryl Hannah were spotted in Moab, Utah, where they happily took this picture supporting the protection of Greater Canyonlands.

Let me know what you have found on the ’net, and it could be in next week’s blog post!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

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If you enjoyed the new video by Sunchaser Pictures, read our interview with director Gavin Heffernan and his five tips for creating your own time-lapse film: “Behind the Scenes of Death Valley Dreamlapse.”

We asked the filmmaker, Gavin Heffernan, about his experience creating the video. He shared his passion for parks and photography with us, and sent a few tips for other nature lovers thinking of creating their own time-lapse movies.

NPCA: What inspired you to film in desert national parks?

Gavin: My team and I work in Los Angeles as filmmakers. California’s close proximity to so many parks and wildlife areas gives us an abundance of riches when it comes to filming locations, both for day and night settings.

When shooting the night sky, we’re looking to get as far away from any light pollution as possible. One of our favorite spots is Joshua Tree, which is only about three hours’ drive from us, yet home to jaw-dropping skyscapes and landscapes. The Eureka Dunes in Death Valley are even further away from illuminated civilization, so the results can be even more stunning!

NPCA: Did you encounter anything unexpected or funny in making these videos? 

Gavin: We were surprised by reactions to a “UFO” visible between 1:30 and 1:35 in the video! We added a small note about a very slow circling aircraft in the video description, and the internet exploded with theories from around the globe on what it was.

The aircraft appears to be maneuvering quickly and erratically because of the long-exposure time-lapse. This is misleading. The object is actually moving very, very slowly—one second of video equals about 10 minutes of shooting! Theories about the object have included aliens, experimental aircraft, weather balloons, flying DeLoreans, luck dragons, and more. Several UFO conspiracy sites have picked up the video and made guesses of their own. For more on the subject, here’s a brief Skype interview I did with RightThisMinute.Com.

NPCA: Was creating a time-lapse video the initial goal, or did it evolve to that point? 

Gavin: That was the goal. My team and I had recently completed a popular trilogy of day/night time-lapses called “Joshua Tree Journey,” and we were eager to branch out to more locations. Though we had never been there, the Eureka Dunes in Death Valley had always held a mythical place in our hearts, and with the coming Geminid meteor shower, we knew we had to strike. Even though the temperatures were supposed to drop very low that night, we bought some cold-weather gear and went for it!

NPCA: Do you have tips for creating time-lapse videos? 

I learned a lot from the great community at Vimeo, where incredibly talented users are eager to share their works and techniques. I recommend browsing their excellent time-lapse clips and tutorials, then going out and doing some tests yourself.

Gavin Heffernan’s five quick tips for shooting starscapes and star trails.

1. Aim for nights with the smallest possible moon. At long exposures, the moon is extremely bright and can drown out a dark, starry sky. You can also experiment with different moon phases, as the effect of the moonlight moving over the dark terrain can also be pretty cool. With “Dreamlapse,” we got a perfect setup, as the Geminid peak came at a time when the moon was almost non-existent.
2. Set up your cameras far away from campsites and avoid stray lights. At long exposures (set between 20-30 seconds with a high ISO–I was shooting at 3200), even a tiny light source can interfere with the starscape (and even break the star trails). However, like most of these “rules,” you can break it to achieve artistic effects. For “Dreamlapse” we used a small lantern to illuminate the foreground sand, to replicate the feeling of fire and highlight the mixed color temperatures.
3. Don’t touch the camera in the middle of a shoot! Sometimes even the slightest touch to the lens can shift the frame and ruin the entire effect–or make a nightmare in the editing room. We shoot with two cameras, which keeps us busy enough to avoid the temptation and allows us to get “total coverage.”
4. There are two ways to accomplish star trails. One is to simply take one picture with a very long exposure (like, 60 minutes). However, we use a technique that blends regular star shots (at 25-second exposures) using specialized software known as StarStaX. In either scenario, you need to avoid clouds at all costs! To get the “circle” effect, aim the camera for the North Star, and let the globe’s spin do the work for you! Once in a good position, I recommend shooting until the entire battery is done. On the Canon 5D we use, this is about 3.5 hours.
5. Don’t panic if things look grim! Even if the skies cloud over or conditions worsen, the camera may be seeing something you’re not. It’s seeing the world with a set of superhuman eyes, so let the shot play out–you may be surprised. Some of the best shots in Terje Sorgjerd’s famous “The Mountain” time-lapse came in the middle of a sandstorm, with what Sorgjerd thought was zero visibility! In our Joshua Tree Storm video, we had a similar storm roll over and dampen our hopes, but we kept shooting and ended up getting amazing stuff that we never would have imagined. So stick with it and crack a beer. You’re in for the long haul, and you never know what you’re gonna get. Maybe even a UFO!

See more of Gavin’s work in Sunchaser’s “Joshua Tree Journey” series:

• Part One: http://vimeo.com/15437000
• Part Two: http://vimeo.com/37587197
• Part Three (Storm): http://vimeo.com/53822527

Follow Gavin on Twitter: @GavinHeffernan.
Check out Sunchaser Pictures on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SunchaserPicturesPage

Paul Bogard has a great gig traveling around the world to ponder the darkness of night skies and the corresponding brilliance of millions of stars.

Bogard, who is not an astronomer but a creative writing professor, was given a contract from preeminent publisher Little Brown to travel anywhere in the world for a year and report on the social, cultural, and scientific importance of darkness. Despite visions of room service in five-star hotels, his expense budget, he says, was not lavish. Still, it allowed him to travel extensively across North America and western Europe to places like New York City, Las Vegas, Quebec, London, Paris, and Madrid, as well as to many of America’s national parks, to experience light-saturated cities in contrast to dark, often remote landscapes.

Bogard secured his publishing contract with an essay about daringly cutting the headlights on his rental car as he raced, two years ago, down one of the loneliest stretches of highway in America, Highway 93, through an area known as the darkest in the continental states.  He was headed to Great Basin National Park’s annual Astronomy Festival to read from his anthology, Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark.

Fittingly, Bogard returns to the park for Great Basin National Park’s annual Astronomy Festival, June 14-16. Bogard will  read from his soon-to-be-released book, The Geography of Night: Discovering Darkness in an Age of Light, on Friday evening, June 15, at the park’s Lehman Caves Visitor Center. Following his presentation, park visitors will walk to a nearby area where astronomers set up dozens of various telescopes and offer an array of short, compelling presentations.

Bogard commends America’s National Park System, particularly national parks in the West, for increasingly offering night sky programs. He points out that visitors to national parks often experience a form of darkness they are unfamiliar with. Many see the Milky Way, with its delicate spill of stars, for the first time in a national park. Indeed, according to the International Dark Sky Association, for the past several decades, it has become increasingly difficult to observe the night sky. Many of our generation have not witnessed the beauty of the summer Milky Way or the mystical dance of the Aurora Borealis.

In 1999, the National Park Service organized the Night Sky Team, officially recognizing that preserving darkness is part of their overall mission. This summer, dozens of national parks, including Great Basin, Bryce Canyon, and Lassen Volcanic National Park, will offer ranger-led night programs.

As an advocate for protecting dark night skies, Bogard is quick to say he isn’t anti-light. “The technology of light,” he says, “is a real miracle. But we just don’t seem to be concerned with how we’re using it. We let it splay out, upwards into the sky, at weird angles. We have become so acclimated to light, at all times and anywhere, that we’re often not aware of all the artificial light around us.”

He notes the uniqueness of Death Valley National Park and the Island of Sark, in the middle of the English Channel, as two of the rare places in the world where you can stand in one spot and look in all directions without seeing artificial light–no glaring beacon on a warehouse, way-too-bright porch light, street lamp, or flashing highway signage.

“My goal is to simply help people become aware of the beauty and value of darkness,” says Bogard. His advocacy, along with the increasing number of night-sky programs offered by the National Park Service, is helping to make people aware of this diminishing natural resource.

Lynn Davis notes that last summer she joined author Paul Bogard on the Las Vegas Strip to evaluate the intensity of light. “It was an honor and privilege to spend time with Paul. While I certainly was aware of the brightness and all the neon, it was shocking to realize that in many places along the Las Vegas Strip it’s actually brighter at night than during the day.”