"The magic of nature’s alchemy."
April 15, 2013 6:24 AM   Subscribe

 
It' beautiful out here. I'm driven tens of thousands of miles through the West and never gotten bored, despite the long hours of driving (I gotta say, though, kids don't exactly share my infatuation with the planet's natural beauty.)
posted by kozad at 6:36 AM on April 15, 2013 [3 favorites]


Perfect! Great way to start my day, a virtual visit to the "holy land" (as my husband and I call it). Thank you.
posted by dbmcd at 6:44 AM on April 15, 2013


As someone from the East Coast, I'm barely able to take in the West. I've been out there a few times, and every time, I spend the first day thinking "how is there this much sky? Is a circle 600 degrees out here? What's going on?"

It walks that line between beautiful and driving me actually mad in a way that's very cool.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:54 AM on April 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


This was lovely even on my iPhone.
posted by flyingsquirrel at 8:43 AM on April 15, 2013


Hate to be the raincloud here, but these timelapse films are getting to be a dime a dozen nowadays. They are all described as, "amazing," and, "beautiful," but seem so similar to me in every way. Theatrical music, a few dollying shots, conventional tourist landscape imagery, day/night transitions, astronomical movements; it is very dramatic, but also predictable and formulaic, hence the proliferation. With this video especially, any beauty that could be gleaned from the imagery was completely offset by the distracting, ostentatious soundtrack; something I would recommend that others mute before attempting to appreciate the piece if you aren't into stereotypical sweeping romantic gesture.
posted by PBR at 9:26 AM on April 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


I've maintained that it's possible for a plain ol' yutz to take an amazing photo in the Southwest.

I mean, compare these photos by my friend who is a for-realz photographer, and some of my photos from the exact same trip at the same time and in the same places.

(Literally: I think he was standing five feet to my left and we were both snapping away at one point.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:38 AM on April 15, 2013


That was beautiful--thanks for posting.
posted by I'm Brian and so's my wife! at 10:10 AM on April 15, 2013


I like this video a bunch, though I wanted moar!

I lived on the East Coast until 2001, when I moved to California. But it wasn't until this past fall (when we drove around UT/CO/NM for vacation) that I experienced the feeling of being Out West, which I imagine was fostered by a childhood diet of cartoons set in Monument Valley-type settings and cowboy and Indian movies and the like.

I'd never been somewhere where you basically burst into spontaneous tears practically every time you go around a curve, or get out of the car at an officially designated Scenic Spot.

And EmpressCallipygos could not be more right - it's almost impossible to take a truly bad photo in a lot of these places. Here's (one of) my Park Avenue shots. We had a little point-and-shoot camera with us, but all the ones on my flickr stream were taken with my damn phone.
posted by rtha at 12:33 PM on April 15, 2013


PBR, I took your suggestion and soundtracked it with The Place Where The Black Stars Hang, and enjoyed being bracingly slapped with the cold merciless indifference of aeons old nature. Recommended!
posted by Jon Mitchell at 5:03 PM on April 15, 2013


Yes! Lustmord- now we're talking!
posted by PBR at 5:22 PM on April 15, 2013


Why must all these gorgeous timelapse videos introduce additional motion (mostly in post, it seems?) I must be the only one who finds it jarring and disorienting to have the ground moving unnaturally slower than the starry sky. Pity, I really like these otherwise.
posted by pahalial at 9:09 PM on April 15, 2013


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