While in London working on a project, I had some free time to run around and get some time-lapse movies of the city. London is an amazing place. When I first arrived I saw about a million tourist wearing the “I LOVE LONDON” shirts, and I thought I’d never wear that. By the time I left I almost got one. Instead, I got a Harley-Davidson London shirt. Anyway, I am definitely going back next opportunity. Video at the bottom of the post.
Marble Arch
London's Parliament building
In order to get too all the locations in the movie, and rode on a site-seeing bus, hopped off, took stills, caught the next bus, and continued. I only used one lens, a Canon 17-55mm f2.8. I took along the ever brilliant Nasty Clamp. I just clamped that thing wherever I could to get a cool shot. I saw this one guy lugging around a cheap tripod…he take it out, slide out the legs, take a pic, and do it all over again. I wanted to give that poor guy my Nasty Clamp, or at least show him mine, and give him the website. Anyway, I can’t talk more enough about the Nasty Clamp. (Thanks to Jem Scofield for talking about it in his daily vlogs). So, I only used that and a mini-tripod. I color corrected with a 3-way color corrector in FCP, and then applied a Nattress filter for the “look.” Now I have yet to arrive to being as top quality as Tom at Timescapes, but as long as I keep practicing and messing up, I hopefully will figure out this technique.
Piccadilly Circus
Proof that I was there.
The last pic is my proof that I actually went to London. Did I have someone take the picture for me? No. I used my Nasty Clamp. Starting to sound like a commercial for Nasty Clamps? Not meaning too. It is a handy little tool. Get one and you’ll be on board. So, below is the time-lapse movie. I thought it would be appropriate to use a Coldplay song. Enjoy.
**[DISCLAIMER: This is a poor quality of the video. I have tried numerous times of uploading this video to Vimeo, but this is the only version I can get to upload that does not play back too choppy. Any solutions out there…let me know!!! Please!]**
London 2010 Time-lapse, Canon 7D from Unblind Productions on Vimeo.
London, Canon 7D Time-lapse from Unblind Productions on Vimeo.
Matt, that was AWESOME! Loved it. Wanna hear more about this. I’d love to mess around with this next time I’m in NY.
Extremely cool, Coleman. Didn’t know you were in London. Can’t wait to see more creations. Your work is always fantastic.
bsmall