Spiral Jetty

[IShouldBeWorking]

There are some locations that just beg to by seen from the air. I'm on my 3rd or 4th drone (depending on how you count them) and the whole time I've been flying, I've wanted to make the 5 plus hour round trip out to the northern shores of the Great Salt Lake to film the Spiral Jetty. Over the weekend, my schedule, the weather and the road conditions finally aligned to make it happen. I'm almost giddy about the results. Such a fun location. Here's a look:

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What do you think? Worth the muddy, long drive?

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Oh! Almost forgot. This was shot with a Mavic 2 Pro at 1/60 shutter using an ND4 filter until the sun got low, then no filter. Edited in DaVinci Resolve 15 with some minor color tweaking.

 

[tcope]

Did the road still have big holes the last few hundred feet? To me, not work a 5 hour drive to see but the video was good. Looks much better when the water is high and the salt sticks to the rocks.

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Did the road still have big holes the last few hundred feet? To me, not work a 5 hour drive to see but the video was good. Looks much better when the water is high and the salt sticks to the rocks.

The road had recently been graded. I was pretty impressed with how nice it was. Even the parking area appeared recently smoothed and rut free. The biggest hazard I had was cows on the road. Thankfully, I didn't hit any. I'm hoping the water level rises a bit by the end of the summer so there's more water and maybe salt in the spiral. Maybe I'll make another trip. It is a long way though.

 

[Porky]

Thoroughly enjoyed your video ISBW, you’ve done a smashing job in post, well done ??

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Thoroughly enjoyed your video ISBW, you’ve done a smashing job in post, well done ??

Thanks Porky! Glad you liked it! My favorite thing about the post-shooting work is seeing all the cool things I captured but didn't even see on the tablet screen when I was on site. With this video, I was delighted by all the cool reflections in the puddles. Didn't even know they were there when I was shooting!

?

 

[Porky]

It’s surprising what you can capture while flying, yeah the reflections on the puddles and sea, spectacular, just like looking into a mirror???

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

It’s surprising what you can capture while flying, yeah the reflections on the puddles and sea, spectacular, just like looking into a mirror???

Thanks! Yeah. I love the Great Salt Lake for mirror-calm reflections. I'm lucky to live near such great scenery. Here's a couple of my favorite stills from that same outing.





I used AirMagic to process these raws. I think it did a pretty good job, but they do seem to come out a little blue. I'll have to keep experimenting.

 

[Porky]

Nice pics, they do look a little blue, you should be able to sort that out in post I think??

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Nice pics, they do look a little blue, you should be able to sort that out in post I think??

Thanks! We'll see. I'm a lot more comfortable working with video than I am with stills. Such a different set of tools. But I try and learn a little bit each time.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Nice video, settings worked well.

Really, is it worth going unless you have a drone etc ?
I don't think you'd see much from the ground level.
There is one pic on wiki of someone at the end of the spiral, so maybe that's the idea of a ground visit.

It's interesting an artist put it there, seems isolated and not many would get a chance to view it from the air, perhaps air tours go there from SLC and it's something these flights visit with guests too.

That certainly is a Great Salt Lake, huge !!

Interesting background of the 'art' on wiki . . .

Spiral Jetty is an earthwork sculpture constructed in April 1970 that is considered to be the most important work of American sculptor Robert Smithson. Smithson documented the construction of the sculpture in a 32-minute color film also titled Spiral Jetty.

Built on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point in Utah entirely of mud, salt crystals, and basalt rocks, Spiral Jetty forms a 1,500-foot-long (460 m), 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) counterclockwise coil jutting from the shore of the lake.

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Nice video, settings worked well.

Really, is it worth going unless you have a drone etc ?
I don't think you'd see much from the ground level.
There is one pic on wiki of someone at the end of the spiral, so maybe that's the idea of a ground visit.

It's interesting an artist put it there, seems isolated and not many would get a chance to view it from the air, perhaps air tours go there from SLC and it's something these flights visit with guests too.

That certainly is a Great Salt Lake, huge !!

Interesting background of the 'art' on wiki . . .

Spiral Jetty is an earthwork sculpture constructed in April 1970 that is considered to be the most important work of American sculptor Robert Smithson. Smithson documented the construction of the sculpture in a 32-minute color film also titled Spiral Jetty.

Built on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point in Utah entirely of mud, salt crystals, and basalt rocks, Spiral Jetty forms a 1,500-foot-long (460 m), 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) counterclockwise coil jutting from the shore of the lake.

Thanks! The jetty is built below a hillside so people can visit and see it from above without a drone. Just not nearly as well. For those that are local to Utah, it's worth a trip. There were about 5 other vehicles that came and went while I was flying. Some hiked down to it. One lady looked like she was setting up camp for the night. Others just came and looked for a bit. I'd say it's probably not worth the trip from down under, but if you ever get up this way, I'd be happy to take you.

The lake is really huge as far as how much land it covers. Although it's super-shallow. You could walk across most of it.

By the way, as a totally unrelated side note, the company I work for was purchased last year by Energy Exemplar, which is based in Adelaide. My boss and many of the higher ups have been down your way for training over the last 6 months. I'm just waiting for my turn. Fingers crossed. Everyone who's been there says it's really nice.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Thanks for the info, and you never know, may get there some day.

Great Salt Lake sounds just like our Lake Eyre, in the north of South Australia.
That is currently filling up from all the cyclonic rain we've had to the far northern corners of the Aussie continent, slowly filtering down the catchments into the lowest point of Australia, the lake is 15 m (49 ft) below sea level.

Lake Eyre is actually a lot bigger than Great Salt Lake, comparos on map . . .
Lake Eyre
Great Salt Lake

Just had to Google Energy Exemplar, cool biz.
If you get to visit down here, bring your drone, we'll certainly head out somewhere for a fly

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Thanks for the info, and you never know, may get there some day.

Great Salt Lake sounds just like our Lake Eyre, in the north of South Australia.
That is currently filling up from all the cyclonic rain we've had to the far northern corners of the Aussie continent, slowly filtering down the catchments into the lowest point of Australia, the lake is 15 m (49 ft) below sea level.

Lake Eyre is actually a lot bigger than Great Salt Lake, comparos on map . . .
Lake Eyre
Great Salt Lake

Just had to Google Energy Exemplar, cool biz.
If you get to visit down here, bring your drone, we'll certainly head out somewhere for a fly

Whew! Glad you had to Google Energy Exemplar. I was worried you were secretly one of my new bosses catching me on the forums instead of working again. If I get down your way, I'll be sure to bring my Mavic and give you a heads up. I'd love to get some video of your part of the world. Maybe we can even get out to Lake Eyre. Looks absolutely huge. Amazing it's actually below sea level too. Glad you've had the good sense to protect it a bit. The Great Salt Lake is open to mining, salt harvesting and a bunch of other stuff that's left it less than beautiful and natural.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

If I get down your way, I'll be sure to bring my Mavic and give you a heads up. I'd love to get some video of your part of the world. Maybe we can even get out to Lake Eyre.

Lake Eyre is about 850km (530 miles) from town
It's what is commonly called 'the outback' or remote central areas of Oz.

But you never know, I do love a good drive . . . I also know some spots to film closer, lol.

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Lake Eyre is about 850km (530 miles) from town
It's what is commonly called 'the outback' or remote central areas of Oz.

But you never know, I do love a good drive . . . I also know some spots to film closer, lol.

Wow! Yeah, maybe some closer spots would be better. That would be a lot of fun. Now I just need the bosses to authorize the trip. And seriously, if you ever get up this way, let me know. I can help get you to some great places to fly in the mountains, red rock, down by the lake or all three.

 

[MavicMikeK]

Great video and I learned something about the Spiral Jetty artist that I never knew until now. Thanks for sharing and educating me.

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Great video and I learned something about the Spiral Jetty artist that I never knew until now. Thanks for sharing and educating me.

Thanks! I"m glad you liked it. I learned a little about Smithson and a lot about the Spiral Jetty as I was prepping for the trip. Always fun to learn new things.