It’s almost impossible to describe the feeling of surprisingly reaching thousands of people with a piece of unadulterated art created purely and solely for the purpose of entertaining and inspiring.
Earlier this year, I purchased my first DSLR and after a few months of trying to figure out where the thing fit into my life I just happened to run across one of DakotaLapse’s breathtaking motion time-lapse videos on Vimeo, in fact I think it was this one, and I had an epiphany. I’ve dabbled in time-lapse here and there since I started my career as a videographer but it wasn’t something that particularly struck my fancy and I think it was mainly because of the limited time-lapse capabilities one has with a prosumer video camera. But that video I saw that had been taken with the same camera I already had and some very affordable motion control equipment had completely reinvigorated my thought process on the medium. I decided right then and there to become a dedicated time-lapse photographer and my DSLR was suddenly this fantastic little tool that fit in to the plan perfectly.
It’s been about two and a half weeks since I posted my first major time-lapse project, Portland Nights, and it has since been viewed over 25,000 times on youtube, featured on the evening news twice, included in OPB’s weekly newsletter’s “Click of Zen”, shared on various popular websites like Mental Floss, Laughing Squid, the Portland Monthly and the Portland Mercury and made it’s way to nearly 6,000 Facebook walls.
I have received nothing but amazing feedback about how much viewers love their beautiful city and how I presented it in a way that brought that feeling out in them. As I was creating this project night after night through the summer, I realized more and more that I had been creating not only a cool looking video but something that brought out the same feeling in myself. I was artfully documenting a time in my life when I lived and loved in this wonderful city and I have been rewarded with a mirrored response from thousands.
Since finishing Portland Nights I have been investing in some more time-lapse gear for the purpose of adding two more axes of motion control as well as bulb ramping which will allow for more dynamic time-lapse shots such as bright sunlight straight into the night stars. And next week I am off to the big island of Hawaii where I grew up to tackle a couple more projects with my brother, fellow videographer/didjeridoo artist Troy Page. Check out Troy’s blog as well as his latest video project on youtube. Stay tuned for more exciting time-lapse and various projects in the coming weeks and thanks for being my audience, it’s what it’s all about.
-Lp-
Congratulations man! The video looked like it took a lot of hard work and time but it really paid off with how well it came out. I didn’t know it has received that much attention from other websites but good for you and job well done.
Lance, finally had time to check out your recent work. And I’m glad I made the time. I think I was wrong when I told you that you had great talent. I should have realized you are actually a genius. Your work is amazing and I can’t wait to see where you go with the stop motion. I’ll definitely be back to check it out. Whatever your secret may be to come up with these creative ideas, just keep doing it!