When I was setting out my plans for 2012, I had Osaka slotted in for February, and Tokyo for March. In between then and now, I realized that the CP+ Camera Show was on in Yokohama near Tokyo, so rearranged my schedule and headed to Tokyo first.
One thing I didn't quite take into account was just how cold it was going to be in Japan during February. After several years of not experiencing winter it came as a bit of a shock to the system!
This month's time lapse is from Tokyo. It shows scenes from around the city, including one of my favourite landmarks, the Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa. It also has a lot of trains, including footage from a driverless system that makes its way around the port area: the Yurikamome Line. This train allows you to sit right up at the front window and get an incredible view of Tokyo Bay along the way.
All footage is shot with the Canon 5D Mk2 - altogether I shot about 14,000 frames of timelapse this month, and the video is an edited selection of this!
Music: "90s Break" by BrunoXe licenced under creative commons.
EDIT (to answer some common questions about shooting...):
Many of the scenes are shot with long exposures to give quite smooth motion effects - usually 1 to 1.5seconds.
I travel as light as possible, so the equipment used is only filters, camera and lenses, a tripod and remote timelapse trigger. All the motion effects are either the camera itself moving such as on escalators or in the train, or through progressive digital crops using donationware software LR timelapse, lightroom and assembled in Quicktime.
There is one scene towards the end with physical motion towards the temple - this is done by physically moving the camera each shot with about 10 second intervals to adjust and line up the composition and a lot of stabilisation with Adobe After Effects.
Thanks very much for all the positive comments! I'm glad many people enjoyed the video!









Comments
Melli
Fri, 03/02/2012 - 08:36
Permalink
Bird
Fri, 03/02/2012 - 08:40
Permalink
Ali - @aliadven...
Fri, 03/02/2012 - 08:41
Permalink
Barbara Weibel
Fri, 03/02/2012 - 10:49
Permalink
Tsubasa manager...
Sat, 03/03/2012 - 07:29
Permalink
Audrey - That B...
Sat, 03/03/2012 - 23:00
Permalink
Stephanie - The...
Tue, 03/06/2012 - 15:06
Permalink
Holger Mette
Wed, 03/07/2012 - 10:07
Permalink
Quite a lot of time - though its probably best not to add it all up or it wouldn't make any logical sense! Each scene in the clip - so a 5-10 second piece of video will probably take about 30 minutes to adjust and render into video, then putting them all together can either be quick if you have things that transition together naturally or can take hours. This time the hardest part was finding music - in the end I'm really happy with the track I found!
alistair shankie
Wed, 03/07/2012 - 01:09
Permalink
Julia
Wed, 03/07/2012 - 08:28
Permalink
Holger Mette
Wed, 03/07/2012 - 10:16
Permalink
A road trip through the US is very much on the cards for later in the year, so quite timely!
Alex
Wed, 03/07/2012 - 11:27
Permalink
Karin
Thu, 03/08/2012 - 02:32
Permalink
Nomadic Samuel
Thu, 03/08/2012 - 09:00
Permalink
Michelle
Thu, 03/08/2012 - 23:31
Permalink
Andreia Cequete
Tue, 03/13/2012 - 13:20
Permalink
Holger Mette
Thu, 03/15/2012 - 11:03
Permalink
Hi Andreia, Just having a look at it and will send you a proper reply by email shortly!
kazu
Wed, 03/14/2012 - 01:02
Permalink
Holger Mette
Wed, 03/14/2012 - 09:14
Permalink
Hi Kazu! I'm still in Japan hoping they start soon... late this year! :)
Federico
Thu, 03/15/2012 - 04:15
Permalink
Holger Mette
Thu, 03/15/2012 - 11:14
Permalink
I think I'm discovering new places where they've managed to find a use for a vending machine each day!
Paul Prescott
Sat, 03/24/2012 - 16:37
Permalink
Shawn Lee
Mon, 03/26/2012 - 00:18
Permalink
Kristen
Sun, 04/01/2012 - 12:09
Permalink
Alberta Rabagao
Fri, 08/03/2012 - 09:54
Permalink
Wow! Really nice video, we love it :-)
Spencer
Mon, 08/13/2012 - 19:59
Permalink
I would love to go to Tokyo one day. I hear it is an amazing place to visit.
Chris Barnes
Fri, 08/17/2012 - 14:00
Permalink
Hi Holger.
Fantastic TL, Tokyo is a magical place, I have always referred to Tokyo as Disneyland - its amazing, something for everyone. I particularly like the underground subway shots!!
Do you mind me asking what lens you used for these shots?
Chris
Holger Mette
Sun, 08/19/2012 - 02:23
Permalink
HI Chris,
Thanks for the comments - I agree Tokyo is a bit like disneyland!
By far the majority is shot with the 17-40mm f4 L lens, including the parts you mention.
Bevan Christ
Thu, 04/11/2013 - 08:29
Permalink
Big up man! Your vid gives out that spacey, modern shine to it that Tokyo has. I'm just traveling in Tokyo and wanted to give my friends a small glimpse of the feeling here, which your timelapse video has outdone. Shared it on my site too. Oh, and nice soundtrack, you nailed it :)
Add new comment