To film their latest time-lapse masterpiece, Gavin Heffernan and Harun Mehmedinović traveled the often-impassable sand roads to Arizona’s White Pocket. Due to the difficulty of reaching it, relatively few visitors have experienced this unique landscape of Jurassic-era petrified sandstone. More frequently visited, but nonetheless spectacular in this artful time-lapse, are the rust-colored rock faces of Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.
Heffernan and Mehmedinović filmed the “brain rocks” and “cauliflower rocks” of White Pocket against a sublime, ever-changing sky. Now turquoise, now primrose, calm and stormy at once, the skies rush over trembling bushes.
Black clouds unfurl and drop heavily like a curtain over the backdrop of white cumulus clouds and happy blue sky.
As the film climaxes, lightning performs a frenzied and erratic dance across the land. Surreal cloud trails mesmerize before a vortex of stars pulls you into space.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra carries you through the experience with “White Dwarf 2,” composed by Terry Devine-King.
Heffernan and Mehmedinović created this film in collaboration with BBC Earth. They aim next to “explore the most exotic dark sky locations in North America, while examining the complex biological and psychological impacts of light pollution on society,” they wrote in a Vimeo post. On April 3rd, they will launch SKYGLOW, a Kickstarter venture, to fund this project. View the SKYGLOW Facebook page here.
For more of Heffernan’s work, see SunChaserPictures.com or follow @GavinHeffernan on Twitter. For more of Mehmedinović’s work, see Bloodhoney.com. For still-frames, see Sun Chaser Pictures on Flickr.
MORE OF HEFFERNAN'S STUNNING TIME-LAPSE VIDEOS:
This Mesmerizing Time-Lapse Video Will Carry You Above Giant Sequoias to Whirl With the Stars
Incredible Time-Lapse Video of Milky Way, Grand Canyon: ‘That Which Awaits the Dawn’
Drop Whatever You’re Doing for a Moment of Magic and Beauty (Time-Lapse Video)
Stunning Time-Lapse Video of LA: Neon Nights to Brilliant Dawns
