Two 8.5 hour flights. Seven days. More than 3000 exposures. 36 degree Celsius weather with 80% humidity. Countless hours fiddling with Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS4, Quicktime Player 7 Pro, and iMovie ’09, I present you with: It’s a small world after all.

Inspired by Keith Loutit’s work, this was my first attempt at a tilt-shift time lapse. What better place to do a time lapse than the vibrant and never-stopping city of Hong Kong?

Music by: Torley
Ambient sounds sourced from:  CNNGo (as I had no time to go record my own!)

Gear used:

• Canon EOS 5D
• EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L
• Manfrotto 055xPROB tripod
• Manfrotto 468RC2 ball-head
• Cokin Z-Pro series GNDs (ND2/4/8)
• Shutter release cable

18 Locations:

• Causeway Bay (2x)
• Sai Wan Ho (2x)
• Times Square
• Kowloon (2x)
• Tsim Sa Tsui (3x)
• International Financial Centre roof-top (3x)
• Central (2x)
• Hong Kong MTR station
• Wan Chai (2x)

Workflow involved:

• Find random pedestrian bridge or viewing platform and set up camera with tripod.
• Take an exposure every 2.5-3 seconds (couldn’t figure out how to work the timer on the shutter release)
• Stop when buffer filled.
• Import RAWs into LR3. Process the first image of each series then sync settings.
• Export photos.
• Open first image of each sequence and apply lens blur.
• Automate in Photoshop.
• Create video from image sequence using QuickTime Player 7 Pro.
• Join all 18 videos and import into iMovie ’09.
• Apply music and background music.
• Export.
• Upload
• Yay!

I had heaps of fun compiling this stop motion video. I literally ran around Hong Kong scouting for high vantage points that overlooked plenty of fast paced action. So I had little time remaining to enjoy the many cheap eats nor take any “normal” photos. I didn’t even go shopping. Gasp! At times, I was afraid I’d melt my MBP with all the exporting and processing!