John Eklund, a professional photographer living in Portland, has moved time-lapse photography to a wonderful new realm with his recent release of “Purely Pacific Northwest.”
His video transforms the rather deliberate pace of nature into a stunning dance of clouds and stars. A heightened sense of movement is felt when he gradually changes the point of view — sometimes moving the camera horizontally and sometimes with a vertical angle.
Be sure to view this full-screen with the sound on.
The Internet has been abuzz with John’s video since it was released a week ago, so you may have viewed it already. The video was featured in Smithsonian Magazine’s online feature “Retina” and was mentioned in the Huffington Post.
The video includes scenic landscapes, mostly in Oregon, including Mt. Shuksan, Crater Lake, Mt. Bachelor, Mount St. Helens, Oregon’s Badlands, Painted Hills, Cape Kiwanda, Mt. Hood, Lost lake and Cannon Beach, as Eklund describes in the notes on the Vimeo page.
“I started this project in July 2011 and shot the final scene in August 2012,” he said. “I took approximately 260,000 images. I used 6.3 TB of hard drive space.”
On his website, “The Art of Time Lapse,” Eklund says he began his career as a portrait, wedding and landscape photographer. Then, in 2004, while browsing on YouTube, he became captivated and inspired by the time-lapse work of an artist posting as Mockmoon2000.
“Over the past eight years, my love for time-lapse photography has grown exponentially,” John writes. “The privilege and challenge of capturing nature’s beauty and sharing the unique aspects of time through my camera lens is incredibly rewarding.”
He says he has found plenty of opportunities to document the changes of time in Northwest landscapes. He also describes the equipment he uses for those interested in the technical side of things.
“My dream – and goal – is to travel all over the world, shooting breathtaking locations and telling our planet’s story,” he says. “I have discovered that when time is the storyteller, a special kind of truth emerges.”
More time-lapse videos, including John’s first use of a dolly, can be seen on his Vimeo page.
It’s beautiful work.
Reminds me of Ron Fricke’s photography which you can see in his new movie Samsara.