Wednesday 15 April 2015

Lofoten - A Time-Lapse Postcard



This is a time-lapse postcard I’ve made during my stay at the Lofoten islands in Norway from March 21 to march 31, 2015. It is located above the Arctic Circle, Lofoten is an archipelago of that protrudes from the coast of northern Norway and spreads far into the Atlantic Ocean. The islands provide rapidly changing weather conditions, jagged mountains and green lagoons with sandy beaches.

During my ten days stay there I’ve filmed at numerous locations including Uttakleiv, Skagsanden, Vikten, Haukland, Ramberg, Hamnøy, Reine and a many of which are small fishing villages. One of the primary industries are the making of stock fish, which is unsalted fish, particularly cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks on the foreshore, called "hjell". The drying of food is the world's oldest recognized preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of quite a lot of years.
The equipment I used as below.

Canon EOS 6D

Canon EF 14mm 2,8L II USM

Canon EF 16-35mm 2,8L II USM

Sigma 24-70 2,8 DG HSM (Which accidentally fell into saltwater and is now pronounced dead)

Kessler 5' Cineslider

Kessler second shooter 3 axis motion control

Manfrotto 536 x2

LEE 100 mm filter system (ND softgrad 0,3 - 0,6 - 0,9 + Little stopper + 105 polariser)



Lofoten - A timelapse postcard from Lasse Henning on Vimeo.

Machu Picchu, A Walk Through The Clouds.



This movie is made by Nu Parnupong Plus on a preview of my work from South America trip.The magical moment of watching Machu Picchu appear amongst the fog and cloud on the sunrise. It's remarkable moment in my life. Perhaps a million photographs of Machu Picchu have been taken but to see this magical moment with your own eyes it's speechless. I was standing there more than three hours to watch this moment while it's raining and cold to shoot the time-lapse shot of this moment is the memorable moment. 

Shooting with Panasonic GH4 + Lumix 7-14mm
I use the time-lapse mode and convert to 4K footage in camera.
Editing and downscale to 1080p by Final Cut Pro X


Machu Picchu,A walk through the clouds. from Nu Parnupong on Vimeo.

Antarctica From Kelle Ljung



This movie was shot during our 20 days trip to Antarctica in December 2014 to January 2015. We decide to start from Ushuaia in Argentina and then go on towards to Port Williams in Chile, rounded Cape Horn and crossed the Drake Passage towards the Melchior Islands in Antarctica. However, we’ve spent sixteen days in the Antarctic and got to experience the most astonishing scenery and wildlife before we returned back to Ushuaia. The Filmed with GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition and DJI Phantom 2, edited with Final Cut Pro X. Music from Music Bed with rights.

Antarctica from Kalle Ljung on Vimeo.

Tuesday 14 April 2015

The Lonely Castle of Mada'in Saleh

Mada'in Saleh (also known as “Hegra”) actually is an ancient city of pre-Islamic period situated in northern Saudi Arabia, approximately 1400 km to the north of capital Riyadh.  In the barren desert landscape of northern Saudi Arabia, an ancient tomb half-carved from a single rock rises four stories tall from the arid plain. It lies in a strategic position on one of the most significant ancient trade routes, which were connected south of the Arabian Peninsula to the north, as well as to the great economic and cultural centers of Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt.

Therefore; the most spectacular among these ruins and the most iconic symbol of Mada’in Saleh “ Qasr al-Farid “lonely castle", the unfinished structure dates back to the first century A.D. during the rule of the Nabateans. Mada'in Saleh was the Nabatean kingdom's southernmost and second largest settlement after Petra, its capital in present-day Jordan. The ancient city dates back to the 2nd century B.C., when it was recognized as a strategic post on a key trading route that interlinked the north and south of the peninsula, as well as key cities around the Mediterranean.

Qasr al-Farid is one of 131 monumental tombs carved in the area lot of centuries ago. This is the most iconic symbol of Mada'in Saleh, the most spectacular facade, cut out of a solitary sandstone outcrop, permits us to see how the “Nabateans” chiseled their buildings from the top-down. Even though the tomb was never completed, and it has remained unusually well-preserved due to the arid climate.

The "lonely castle,"  and other surrounding monuments, have relished renewed fame after UNESCO proclaimed Mada'in Saleh a site of patrimony becoming Saudi Arabia's first World Heritage Site in 2008. It is considered one of the most central and oldest ancient cities in the country, as Mada'in Saleh is an archeologically vital site with royal ruins that are often compared with those of Petra, because it stands completely isolated from the others.

In spite of its fanciful name, Qasr al-Farid is only a tomb and it was carved out of a single rock sometime in the first century A.D., but its facade was never finished which makes the tomb an interesting study. The heavily chiselled surface of the lower third documents how these tombs were designed from the top down. Moreover; Qasr al-Farid is just one of ninety-odd such monumental tombs carved here during the heyday of the Nabataeans.

The Exotic Mushroom Tunnel Farm in New South Wales, Australia

Well, do you’ve any idea where is freshest Mushroom available? What do you think about exotic mushrooms are grown; probably your first answer will be in the forests, in basements, somewhere dark? But here we’d like to inform you at one place in New South Wales, Australia, where you can find freshest exotic mushrooms are grown in a tunnel. Li Sun Exotic Mushrooms has been a long part of Australia’s history. In the start of 19th century, the Great Southern Railway ran from Sydney to Picton. However resources such as marble, coal, sandstone, shale, timber and farm produce were carried to Sydney through this railway.

The Persons who’re also traveled through here and by the 2nd half of the 19th century; it became an troublesome mode of transportation for all. However in 1863, the railway has decided to extended southwards that included Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale and Marulan.  Thus in 1869, the railway was successfully completed with a massive distance of 224 kilometers, from Sydney to Goulburn. This is a tunnel which was then needed to be made at the side Mount Gibralter, located between Mittagong and Bowral. However, it took two years to complete the excavation work.

Then in 1866, the single-line tunnel was completed, when the construction of double lines for the main Sydney to Melbourne line was completed in 1919, the original tunnel was abandoned. Therefore; in mid-1942 during the WWII, the unused tunnel was used as storage for explosives by the Royal Australian Air Force. Though after the war, stocks of explosives were slowly vacated from the tunnel. Then later in 1953, all stocks were cleared and the site was closed. In the post-war years, the abandoned tunnel became one of the first cultivated farms in Australia. In 1987, Dr. Noel Arrold took over the tunnel and produced new mushroom varieties for the Australian market. The cool, damp, and the dimly lit environment of the tunnel resemble well the mountainous of China, Japan, and Korea. Now, the tunnel grows some extensive varieties of exotic mushrooms such as

Chestnut: One of the oldest species of mushrooms cultivated from the Ancient Greeks. 

Nameko: A very popular mushroom in Japanese cuisine, the name describes a sticky substance on the cap of the mushrooms which adds to the flavor.

Enoki: A traditional Japanese mushroom grown in bunches with long thin stems.

King Brown: A superior mushroom by comparison due to its long shelf life. It offers a superior flavour and texture when compared to other species of Oyster mushrooms.

Oyster: Mushrooms are fluted, oyster shell shaped varieties found on rotting tree stumps and fallen trees. They are common throughout North America.

Shiitake: First cultivated in China about AD1100 and later introduced into Japan also known as Black Forest Mushroom.

Shimejii: A Japanese mushroom that grows from fallen oak, beech or elm trees, there are many varieties but only one is cultivated in Australia at the moment

Swiss brown: One of the most widely cultivated mushrooms; they are the strongest, richest and most robust of the white and brown mushrooms.

Woodear Mushrooms: An essential ingredient in Asian cooking, this mushroom provides a texture contrast and is ideal in soups.

In recent times, new methods of cultivations of mushrooms have been industrialized which require more specialized environmental controls so these mushrooms are grown in climate controlled cropping rooms.

If you’re interested to view the tunnel itself, you can book tours that are conducted three to four times in a year. Just visit Li Sun Exotic Mushrooms Tunnel’s website for further details.

South Island New Zealand

We have been adventuring around the South Island in New Zealand and we absolutely love this place. Hopefully with our video postcard, you will too. Glaciers look really nice - too bad we didn't get to see them. Stunning, inspiring, magical and just plain awesome! So much to love - editing, compositions, colouring, music selection, movement. Just fantastic.

For more about our experience in New Zealand visit:
bitt-n.com
Music: Dwell by Tony Anderson, The Music Bed.

Postcard from New Zealand from Bitt-n.com on Vimeo.

Glimpse of Southern Norway by Morten Berg



In this time-lapse video, you’ll see scenes from the beautiful nature in Southern Norway. The spectacular fjord landscape in Geiranger is in the video as well as scenes from Jotunheimen, Rondane and Hjørundfjorden. You’ll also see Northern light/Aurora Borealis in the end of the video. Before every journey, I always try to pre-visualize the sequences as much as possible. In spite of this, it is often tough to capture sequences that really shine. Several times a lot of clouds and/or strong wind have tumbledown sequences I had planned in advance. In this unique project however, the luck has definitely been on my side. Moreover two water reflection sequences (0:15-0:36) i.e., turned out very nice in my view. The enchanted interaction between the mist and mirror surfaced- therefore, water at sunrise was a moment that will stay in my memory always. During my 4 years of time-lapse photography across Southern Norway, I have never witnessed a lake so calm and in such light. A gentle breeze and the magic would have been destroyed. Lucky for me, it didn't, I was at the right place at the right time.

The Milky Way sequence between 3:16-3:26 also astonished me. I thought I had shot a rather foreseeable time-lapse sequence of the Milky Way over high peaks in Jotunheimen. When I started to edit the sequence in post-production, I observed that the color in the atmosphere changed during the sequence- from the usual dark blue to green. I knew that it couldn’t be the aurora as I was shooting towards the south. I did a slight research, and I learned that the phenomenon was called Airglow- which is a faint emission of light caused by numerous processes in the earth’s upper atmosphere. I'm always looking for changes in nature when I shoot time-lapse, so this was definitely a surprise. This is my third time-lapse project from the gorgeous landscapes in Southern Norway, an area which has captivated me since my childhood. The utmost challenge though filming this project was finding perfect moments at the right place. On one instance, I had to spend a week just to capture the perfect moment in time. Unnecessary to say, this approach turned out to be rather time consuming, so this project was filmed over the course of 14 months. Thank you for watching my video. I hope you like it-share if you like

Music licensed from musicbed.com/
Artist: Tony Anderson: Song Title:further-up-further-in
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Glimpse of Southern Norway from Morten Berg on Vimeo.