Timelapse Videos Go Viral

by Cody Matz
November 16, 2011 8:20 PM


A few seconds of video can take months to complete; but, for Randy Halverson, it's life. Born and raised on a farm near Kennebec, he knows the fields.

“I grew up in that area, so I’ve been you know around that area my whole life,” he explained.

Growing up an avid photographer, he started early collecting cameras. Then, it was off to storm chasing when it became big in the 90's. But, when it no longer became cost effective because of gas prices, he decided to try something else a little closer to home.

“First I saw an astro timelapse on the internet a couple years ago it kinda appealed to me," said Halverson. "It was something you don’t normally see and you can’t see it with your own eyes. I had the camera equipment to do it, so I thought id give it a try.”

Try, he did. His first couple of videos didn’t have much of a response, but then came his third, and arguably, his most popular video.

“I really liked the Milky Way shots,” said Halverson.

Soon that video, and many others that followed, went viral. More than 170,000 on Youtube, plus more than a million views on Vimeo, Bing, and Yahoo, and, all of a sudden, his videos were seen by millions around the world.  But, this very mild man says the tricks of his trade are quite simple.

“Mainly just finding the shots is the first thing, it doesn’t have to be anything elaborate,” Halverson explained.

With a dolly, a couple calibrations, and a few clicks, he lets nature speak for itself--and that’s what might be so fascinating. The videos show something that many of us look up and see everyday, but rarely to the vivid clarity that Halverson captures.

“There are some full moon shots and half moon shots and it will look like daytime, but it’s all at night,” said Halverson.

So, has he had enough yet?

“The next one is my favorite one,” laughs Halverson.

With a response like that, the end isn't likely to happen anytime soon, especially now that his videos have caught the attention of major networks, including National Geographic.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but Halverson's video reaches for the stars.

Click here if you would like to see more of Halverson's videos.