Striking Time-Lapse Photography: Namibian Nights

Fairytale-like quivertrees and eerie dead camelthorn trees
Arts • Views: 19,897

It’s not easy to come up with something new when you visit the same place every year for more than a decade. Over the years Marsel has created the most extensive and most popular night photography portfolio of Namibia on this planet, and two years ago he decided it was time to take it to the next level.

The idea was to create a night photography timelapse video featuring his most popular subjects in this amazing country: the fairytale-like quivertrees and the eery, dead camelthorn trees in Deadvlei - something that had never been done before. But instead of going for static scenes, Marsel decided to add movement to the scenes by using a dolly system.

All scenes were shot during the night with Nikon D3, D3s and D4 cameras. We used small headlights for selectively lighting trees and rocks, and we sometimes used the moon. The brighter the scene, the more moon there was at the time. For the arch scene we timed our shoot exactly with moonset, which involved quite a bit of calculating and planning. But the hardest one of all was probably the mist scene in Deadvlei. Mist in Deadvlei only occurs around five times a year, so we had to keep a close eye on the weather predictions and many attempts were unsuccessful. When we finally got it right, the results far exceeded our expectations and show Deadvlei as no one has ever seen it before.

Each second of video consists of 30 photographs. In total, Marsel shot more than 16,000 images over a period of two years for this project.

The video won First Prize in the 2012 Travel Photographer Of The Year Awards.

Marsel & Daniella

Credits:
Director: Marsel van Oosten
Editor: Daniella Sibbing
Composer: Simon Wilkinson
Produced by: Squiver
Equipment used:
Cameras: Nikon D3, D3s and D4
Lenses: Nikon 14-24/2.8 and 24-70/2.8
Tripods: Gitzo
Dolly: Stage Zero, Dynamic Perception
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/Squiver
Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/marselvanoostenphotography

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27 comments
1 Political Atheist  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:19:19pm

I like how they brought some light onto the scenes. Especially behind the tree. Nice.

2 geoffm33  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:23:12pm

Good evening all, and a drive by at that. Just wanted to say that shoveling sucks. But rum is good and may gift myself several episodes of House of Cards tonight as a reward for the shoveling madness.

3 Interesting Times  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:33:59pm
4 Dark_Falcon  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:36:58pm

re: #3 Interesting Times

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

5 Stanley Sea  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:38:10pm

re: #3 Interesting Times

very cool

6 lawhawk  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:38:59pm

re: #2 geoffm33

That’s a whole lotta snow. I’m assuming that those drifts over on the left are cars?

7 wrenchwench  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:44:43pm

Something to watch at home.

Later, lizards.

8 geoffm33  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:45:52pm

re: #6 lawhawk

That’s a whole lotta snow. I’m assuming that those drifts over on the left are cars?

Definitely, we got about 25” I believe in South Boston. But our side of the street and the private way behind the house had 3’ - 4’ drifts.

9 Charles Johnson  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:54:19pm

For a fun time, traceroute 216.81.59.173.

And if you feel the urge to awk this hostname hack:

10 Feline Fearless Leader  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:55:44pm

Watching “Viva Zapata”.

In any movie about the Mexican Revolution(s) it appears that wearing a khaki uniform is like wearing a red shirt on Star Trek - automatic death sentence.

Also interesting to see Anthony Quinn playing a Mexican. ;)

11 geoffm33  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 5:56:16pm

re: #9 Charles Johnson

That is awesome!

12 Dark_Falcon  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:05:30pm

re: #10 Feline Fearless Leader

Watching “Viva Zapata”.

In any movie about the Mexican Revolution(s) it appears that wearing a khaki uniform is like wearing a red shirt on Star Trek - automatic death sentence.

Also interesting to see Anthony Quinn playing a Mexican. ;)

A bit overblown: Some of Orbregon’s men wore khaki and they crushed Villa at Celaya.

13 Gus  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:08:23pm

Another Police Helicopter Lands to Harass Citizens Ask a White Person for ID. Liveleakers are angry! War! Some I guess.

Goofy on so many levels. Had they landed to ask a Hispanic person for ID they would have said “right on man get those illegals.” Chopper cop asks for ID and the person doesn’t have one on him/her so he just calls in her name. All good. He/she does not approve of a quick search and the cop says that’s OK and leaves asking why he/she has a torch on him. He/she claims it’s just for something about the batteries on his/her phone. Right. Chopper cop leaves. Oh, this person says he was picking up rocks. Believe it or not it’s not legal to even pick up rocks on public lands. Mountains out of mole hills.

14 Gus  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:12:02pm

Same video. Looks like the Freepers have gone full bore anti-government too. One genius postulates:

I only counted one polite officer but then again, I never was very good at arithmetic………

A chick and her friend walking around in the California desert…….I can think of three possibilities:

1. They might be illegals (from the air they all look alike)

2. They might be looking for a drug drop….

3. They’re picking up rocks……

Since the first two never occur in California, the Sheriff should have automatically assumed the third and ignored them………….

Uh, he did ignore her in the end.

15 Gus  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:24:00pm
16 Dark_Falcon  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:26:04pm

re: #15 Gus

A story like that of Dorner is just the sort to bring all the wrong people together.

17 Gus  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:26:22pm

Will the circle. Be unbroken. By and by lord by and by…

18 Shvaughn  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:32:29pm

re: #15 Gus

It’s the circle of derp
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Derp

19 Gus  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:35:10pm

re: #16 Dark_Falcon

A story like that of Dorner is just the sort to bring all the wrong people together.

It’s weird. Now the wingnuts are seeing cops as “Obama cops.” So effectively they’re starting to sound like a lot of the cop haters from, for example, the Oakland area. There are many. You get into the conspiracy nuts and it’s hard to tell the difference. David Duke is one since he’s effectively a wingnut but has serious moonbat tendencies. Alex Jones varies in popularity depending on who is sitting in the White House. If a Democrat is in the White House then he’s popular with the wingnuts. If a Republican is in the White House then he’s popular with the moonbats. The repeating factor is conspiracy theory which is not really based on political party.

20 Eventual Carrion  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:39:10pm

re: #10 Feline Fearless Leader

Watching “Viva Zapata”.

In any movie about the Mexican Revolution(s) it appears that wearing a khaki uniform is like wearing a red shirt on Star Trek - automatic death sentence.

Also interesting to see Anthony Quinn playing a Mexican. ;)

And how much Bert Reynolds looks like young Brando

21 Killgore Trout  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:39:59pm

re: #19 Gus

It’s weird. Now the wingnuts are seeing cops as “Obama cops.” So effectively they’re starting to sound like a lot of the cop haters from, for example, the Oakland area. There are many. You get into the conspiracy nuts and it’s hard to tell the difference. David Duke is one since he’s effectively a wingnut but has serious moonbat tendencies. Alex Jones varies in popularity depending on who is sitting in the White House. If a Democrat is in the White House then he’s popular with the wingnuts. If a Republican is in the White House then he’s popular with the moonbats. The repeating factor is conspiracy theory which is not really based on political party.

Let’s not forget that the original Tea Party was Ron Paul-Code Pink-9-11 truther events. Like the Tea Party, OWS railed against the bank bailouts. It’s all the same nonsense.

22 Decatur Deb  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:41:05pm

re: #10 Feline Fearless Leader

Watching “Viva Zapata”.

In any movie about the Mexican Revolution(s) it appears that wearing a khaki uniform is like wearing a red shirt on Star Trek - automatic death sentence.

Also interesting to see Anthony Quinn playing a Mexican. ;)

IIRC, Quinn was Mexican, on his mother’s side. We had San Patricios all over the place.

23 Stanley Sea  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:41:58pm

re: #14 Gus

Same video. Looks like the Freepers have gone full bore anti-government too. One genius postulates:

Uh, he did ignore her in the end.

You know who’d I hate to be tonight? An overweight black man, anywhere in California.

Hell, you can be two hispanic women, one like my mom, and still be shot at.

24 Decatur Deb  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:43:38pm

re: #15 Gus

Nice wheel, but it lets the MBF set it spinning.

25 Dark_Falcon  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:48:01pm

re: #21 Killgore Trout

Let’s not forget that the original Tea Party was Ron Paul-Code Pink-9-11 truther events. Like the Tea Party, OWS railed against the bank bailouts. It’s all the same nonsense.

It’s an intense distrust of large institutions that’s the cause of it.

26 Gus  Sat, Feb 9, 2013 6:48:52pm

re: #25 Dark_Falcon

It’s an intense distrust of large institutions that’s the cause of it.

Moonbats and wingnuts have both always been anti-government.

27 Glenn Beck's Grand Unifying Theory of Obdicut  Sun, Feb 10, 2013 3:15:53am

re: #21 Killgore Trout

Let’s not forget that the original Tea Party was Ron Paul-Code Pink-9-11 truther events. Like the Tea Party, OWS railed against the bank bailouts. It’s all the same nonsense.

Nope. The main complains from OWS about the bailouts was not that they happened at all, but that there weren’t any strings attached, that there weren’t any large-scale prosecutions, that there wasn’t anything being set up to prevent the exact same thing happening again.

The main difference between OWS and the Tea Party is that by and large, the things the Tea Party complains about don’t exist, are simply fabrications, and the things OWS complained about— like the massive increase in wealth disparity in this country— are really huge problems we need to address.


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