Long-term Offgrid Time Lapse with GoPro

I have a love affair with the San Juans Mountains. This stretch of the Rockies are steep, deadly and seem more beautiful every time I visit them. The icy lakes, cold rivers, and variable extreme weather make for interesting adventures and photos. After completing my latest short time lapse film StateScapes: Nevada I decided to shoot my next project about Colorado which means lots of time in this rugged area.

For StateScapes: Colorado I wanted to push the boundary a bit and do something more advanced than your typical time lapse film and by that I mean long term work. I have a few set ups operating now and each is a little bit different as I work on building the perfect kit. My first kit is a Canon 20d which is powered from a full size car battery. If you’ve ever lifted a car battery then you know how heavy those batteries weigh then you know it’s not very practical to haul to remote locations.

My second kit is a light weight solar powered GoPro which I placed in the San Juans near an abandoned mine to show the deep snow piling up over the mine. The GoPro is programmed to take photos every 30 minutes throughout the day in order to capture enough photos to make a sequence where the light is similar day to day. In post production, I will remove abnormally dark and bright frames in order to make the shot smooth and clean.

The GoPro is rigged up to a V44 battery in always on mode and a 9 watt solar panel for power.  The GoPro turns it self on and off every 30 minutes to save battery and with the V44 topping off the camera this set up could, in theory, shoot until the camera malfunctions or the card fills up even in the rainy, cloudy San Juans.

This Voltaic set up is lightweight and portable something my other set up is not. I set the camera up on a hill and then built a fortress of rocks around the camera. The solar panel is positioned to get the maximum amount of sun everyday to keep the V44 full enough to top off the internal GoPro battery.

When creating time lapse films I’m always looking for ways to help tell a story and with so much mining history in Silverton and the entire state of Colorado, this shot will help add historical context to my short film. See you all in a few months when the shot is complete!