Posts tagged starlink

Montana, USA
07 August 2023

This is the world now, logged on, plugged in, all the time.
—John Conner (from the movie, Terminator Genisys)

Less than 17 Minutes…This image includes all of the satellites captured by my camera during less than 17 minutes of shooting.

I originally planned to include all of the satellites from a 3-hour timelapse, but after painstakingly masking satellites into images for about 6 hours, I had gotten through less than 17 minutes’ worth of images.

Each image in the timelapse series was 2.5 seconds, iso 5000, f/1.4, and I was shooting with a 3 second interval. I processed 326 frames from the series, totaling 878 seconds or 16.3 minutes.

This image is supposed to be a bit shocking, if not downright terrifying. The impact of our species goes far beyond the surface of our planet or its inner atmosphere. We have filled the space surrounding our planet with an army of machines. While these machines generally serve to provide services believed to improve life on our planet, they are also constantly monitoring us. In addition, we are becoming increasingly dependent on them to maintain the world we know.

There are clear risks associated with our dependence on technology, but beyond that, we are losing our connection with our planet, our home, Earth. For most of us, we are somehow connected to the internet almost all the time. We use GPS and other satellite networks repeatedly throughout each day. At times it seems that our cell phones and other devices are part of our physical beings, an extra appendage if you will.

I wanted this image to bring on a feeling of dystopia, with the old building representing a time before now, and the vast network of satellites representing our future as dependents on technology. But I also wanted to include a glimmer of hope for a better future, symbolized by the small flowers growing in the foreground.

“The future has not been written. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. I wish I could believe that.”
-John Conner (from the movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines)