Here Comes Winter!

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Chugach, Travel, Video 2 Comments

A lot of the time I have spent in the field over the last three years has been spent creating content I haven’t been able to share here on the blog – video.

There are a couple of reasons I haven’t been able to share much of my video work.  For one, I don’t market my stock video – it all goes to an agent under an exclusive license.

In addition, I have also spent a couple of years (2011 and 2012) contributing video to be used in a new film at the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center.  I was hired to do what they called the “beauty shots”.  Lots of landscapes, wildlife time-lapse etc.  Now that the production is done (it began airing last Summer), I can share some of my work – they also had an exclusive arrangement.

So here is a short variety of Winter clips.  Some of the things I was assigned were more challenging to capture then you might think – like fresh snow blowing from trees.  As often as I have seen that happen over the years – it is hard to be set-up  and rolling before it happens.  The opening clips which go from Summer to Autumn and then Winter were a lot of fun, and something I hope to do more of in the future.

By the way, if you do get by the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center, check out the video.  I also have a number of photos on the walls of the Center, and in the Visitor Guide – I am proud of the wonderful relationship I have had with the Chugach National Forest over the years.

Moving Night Time-lapse

Ron Niebrugge Anza-Borrego, California, Travel, Video 13 Comments


I have been trying some new things here in Anza-Borrego including moving night time-lapses like you see here.  I know some of my late night efforts have been ruined by unexpected headlights 🙁   But, I have a feeling some might be working out.

Typically I will put these together once I’m home on a much faster computer, but wanted to assemble one while on the road just to see what is working and what isn’t, and since I did, I thought I would share it here.  So, I do have one question, what do you think of the airplanes passing by?  They look like shooting stars, but are planes.  If necessary, I could avoid them by going later at night and/or with some post processing effort.

Holland Americas Cruise Ship Video

Ron Niebrugge Alaska, Travel, Video 10 Comments

Here is another time lapse video.  This one is of the Holland America cruise ship Veendam leaving Seward, Alaska last July 5, 2009.  This was my second or third evening of trying to capture a ship leaving – it took a few tries before I could capture the entire turnaround in the frame, while still have a fairly tight composition.  If you change the settings in the bottom corner of the You Tube frame, you can see it full frame in 1080 HD.

A post about leaving Seward is fitting as we are leaving Seward later today bound for Denali National Park.  We may have one or two occasions where we have access to the internet – if I do, and have something worthy I will put it on the blog, but it is very likely I won’t post again until next Tuesday.

Las Vegas Time-lapse Video

Ron Niebrugge Las Vegas, Nevada, Travel, Video 9 Comments

Take a 12 minute trip down the Las Vegas Strip in 12 seconds, and then enjoy the Downtown laser light show!  I’m surprised it only took 12 minutes to drive the length of the strip, that is because it was a cold, winter mid-week evening.  By the way, if you have the bandwidth or patience, you can watch it in 1080 HD.

This is my first attempt at putting together a time-lapse video.   I actually captured the stills for the strip footage 4 years ago on the same night as this Las Vegas Strip photo.   You might notice that the demolished Stardust is still standing and open, and City Center doesn’t yet exist. The downtown laser show was from last fall.

Four years ago – I had a big head start on the recently popularity for time-lapse – unfortunately these files have just been sitting on my computer.  I shot a fair amount of Alaska time-lapse footage last summer, and hope to do something with it soon as well.  It has been a bit of a steep learning curve – the long list of words like codec, MPEG4, H.264 are like a whole new language to me.   I  have to thank Phil Colla for getting me headed in the right direction.

For those who are interested in how I captured the images of the strip, you might enjoy this blog post:  Las Vegas Strip