From Daylight to Starlight: A 5K Night Lapse Over Shamblen Farms

In the middle of a snowy winter, I hiked across a frozen hayfield behind a road on Shamblen Farms with a car battery slung over my shoulder — and a dog named Nico by my side.

What came out of that night is a 5K night lapse video that almost never made it to the internet. Not because it wasn’t worth sharing — but because the file was so massive I couldn’t even play it properly on my best computer. It stuttered, glitched, and refused to preview. At one point, I honestly thought it was broken for good.

Turns out, it worked. And now it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever filmed.

📷 How It Was Made

This video wasn’t just captured — it was built, frame by frame. I used the GoPro Hero 9’s night lapse mode, set to RAW photo capture, meaning every single frame in the final video is a full RAW image. I imported the entire sequence into Lightroom and edited them as a batch at full resolution — no compression, no shortcuts.

Then I rendered it in 5K, preserving every detail from the pale gold of the last daylight to the deep indigo glow of the stars above the field.

Even on a 2K monitor, it’s striking. If you’ve got a 4K or 5K screen, turn off the lights and go full screen.

🐺 A Moment with Nico

This hike wasn’t something I did alone. Our dog Nico — a half wolf, half German Shepherd, half Husky lol — came with me that day. He had always been a nervous, distant dog, the kind that would run from you even if you offered food.

But something about that farm changed him.

On Shamblen Farms, Nico became part of the pack. He didn’t just follow — he led. He listened. He wanted to be included in the mission. That day, trekking out across the snow-covered field, he didn’t flinch. He was all in.

Nico had this little trick he’d pull — acting like he didn’t know how to get through the gate near the cabin, only to wait until I was a hundred feet ahead and then come barreling through with all the confidence in the world.

Nico has since passed away, but I’ll never forget the quiet confidence in him that came alive on that farm.

🎞 Closing

This isn’t just a timelapse. It’s a rare moment of silence, solitude, and raw clarity — captured at the exact sliver of time when the moon disappeared and the Milky Way center started to rise, just before the sun came back up.

It’s about doing things the hard way, because they’re worth doing.

Watch the video here:
📹 YouTube: From Daylight to Starlight in 5K
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🎽 Ruck vest: Wolf Tactical on Amazon