Into The Atmosphere: California Timelapse Photography

California timelapse photography by Michael Shainblum on Vimeo.

“Into The Atmosphere,” is my time lapse tribute to the state of California and the beautiful deserts, mountains and coastlines that exist there. This video showcases a variety of national/state parks as well as less recognized natural areas. The video also focuses on clouds, fog and interesting atmospheric conditions. Although California is known for blue sunshine skies, seeing a colorful storm cloud over Half Dome or an incredible sunset at the La Jolla Coves is really a sight to see. The goal of this video is to show these environments in their best possible light.

Living in California all my life, I had as much time as I needed to really capture the essence and beauty it provides. This video was an ongoing project for about a year with an estimated 75,000 images taken, and about 12,400 made it into the 3.5 minute piece.

My Grandmother Alice Harpin passed away during the last two weeks of shooting this video. The film is dedicated to her memory. Without her and the love of my family, this video would not have been possible.

To create this video there were many nights sleeping outside, and many days spent in the wild to embrace the environment and get to know the surroundings.

Some of the locations are Mono Lake, Anza Borrego Desert, Alabama Hills, Trona Pinnacles, Big Sur, Mount Laguna, Santa Maria, Yosemite, Gaviota, The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, La Jolla Coves, Santa Ynez, the San Francisco Coast, and the Santa Barbara Mountains.
Motion controlled time lapse equipment made possible by:
Dynamic Perception: dynamicperception.com/
Emotimo: emotimo.com/

Song: Thomas Bergersen – Remember Me
Licensed by Extreme Music
extrememusic.com/

The stock timelapse video is available in 4K

5 Comments

  1. Hi Michael
    Just Want to say I really appreciate your photos / film. I’ve seen a lot of time laps but your are stunning

    Thanks /s

  2. Michael,

    Came across your images a couple of days ago on Instagram which then led me to your website. Really amazing stuff! Love the seascapes and the time lapse films you’ve put together. This one in particular blew me away – stunning. Looking forward to following you and seeing more of your work.

    I’ll be in San Fran the next couple of days and again in August for a week. I’ve photographed the Golden Gate Bridge from Marshall’s Beach before but had never ventured to Sutra Baths, Land’s End area. You’ve inspired me to give it a shot. Hoping for a good sunset tomorrow!

    All the best

  3. WOW, your timelapse photography is amazing! I have been working on a project and I can completely appreciate the time and effort into timelapse especially the night sky. The conditions have to be just perfect. We spend hours out under the stars for a few seconds of footage. This video is exceptionally well done. I mainly try to capture night sky and a lot of long exposure type stuff so I can truly understand the work involved. Here s a little snippet of the Aurora from a project I am working on (we are fortunate up in canada with the lack of light pollution and beautiful auroras) https://www.facebook.com/allison.curriebeaulieu/videos/vb.547435721/10156877866265722/?type=3&theater Please know your work is truly inspiring! 🙂 Cheers!

  4. Prathviraj Shastry

    Sir I have been following your work for about 2 years . you have really inspired me to do landscapes and timelapse i wanted to say thank you for the wonderful work .

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