Thursday 16 April 2015

Central Highlands of Spain



The shot is taken in the central highlands of Spain, the autonomous regions Castilla-La-Mancha and Castilla-y-Léon.  This is a region full of rich history and culture: The Goths, Romans and Moors have left their marks here. Don Quijote has fighted against the windmills here. This was the place of residence of El Greco, Diego de Velazquez and Francisco de Goya.The first time I've taken my dolly with traveling. It did a great job. The landscape there is really very special. It is an incredibly vast country. One cannot capture it with the camera. Indeed he’s true artist and who display a sensitive ability to capture the heart of the Castillian landscape! But see for yourself.
Music: John OO Fleming, The Dewberry Tree
Nikon D90, Sigma 10-20, DIY Dolly:
Dolly: vimeo.com/25452283
pocketslider.de/en.html


Spain from Ben on Vimeo.

The Lakes of Ubari Sand Sea



The Ubari Sand Sea is a widespread area of towering sand dunes in the Fezzan region of south-western Libya. However, around 200,000 years ago, this was an extremely wet and fertile region with plenty of rainfall and flowing rivers. These rivers fed a gigantic lake, even the size of Czech Republic, in the Fezzan basin called Lake Megafezzan. Well, during the humid temperature the lake stretched to a maximum size of 120,000 square kilometers. As the climate changes, it cause the region, a part of Sahara, to slowly dry up and between 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. But the lake evaporated away into thin air. Hints of this great lake still exist nowadays in the form of micro lakes dispersed among the towering dunes like wet patches in the desert. Presently there’re about 20 lakes in the Ubari Sand Sea - beautiful palm-fringed oases that appear like anomalies in the harsh desert environment. Among the most attractive of the lakes are Gaberoun and Umm al-Maa (the Mother of Water). It is located besides the ruins of the old village; Gaberoun is the place, which one tourist mostly visits. There is a rudimentary tourist camp on the shore, including an open patio, sleeping huts, and a souvenir shop. There’re two more lovely lakes – “Umm al-H'isan” (the Mother of the Horse), also spelt as Oum El Hassan, which is located north of Gaberoun; and another one at Tarhouna, about 11km from Umm al-H'isan. These are, however, rarely visited by tourists.

The Ubari lakes are very salty; due to the fact that these lakes are being incessantly evaporated and have no rivers replenishing them (Libya has no persistent rivers that persist year-round. This has caused the dissolved minerals in the lake waters to become concentrated. Some of these lakes are nearly five times saltier than seawater. Some take on blood-red hue from the presence of salt-tolerant algae. Although the Ubari Lakes are not exactly shallow, ranging from 7 to 32 meters in depth, they’re at the risk of drying out. The waters in Sahara’s underground aquifers, that were deposited tens of thousands of years ago in much wetter times, is limited and this is now declining, however thanks to the increasing use of aquifer water by growing human populations. Almost thirty years ago, the Libyan government accepted an ambitious project called “Great Man-Made River”, aimed at drawing water from the aquifers beneath the Fezzan region via a network of underground pipes to make the desert bloom. The project, if successful, will drain these enormous reserves of fresh water in just 50 to 100 years.Source: Amusing Planet

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.