Monolation: 1 year, 17,000 photos, 1 gorgeous video

Jess Dunlap is a director and photographer and also the genius behind the beautiful "Monolation" video. Jess filmed the video over the course of 2012, which consists of over 17,000 photos he took with his Canon 7D. Jess also used a Dynamic Perception "Stage Zero" dolly with a "Merlin" head to achieve the stunning results you see below:

"After finishing my first time lapse compilation, "Vermornia," I decided to push the limits of what my gear could do in terms of camera movement, specifically combining the tracking movements with the pan/tilt axes. I had been visiting the Yosemite/Mammoth/Owens Valley area a lot at the time and knew I could get plenty of material there. The biggest challenge was showing up to a location when the light was just about to be perfect and taking the time to find a good setup for a shot - if I waited too long, I would lose the light; if I didn't spend enough time to take in the environment and get a sense for what was about to happen, I might settle too quickly on a lesser shot. Needless to say, I learned this the hard way - there are dozens of failed shots that did not make the video. What I enjoy most about making this kind of material is that, while they are indeed "creative" shots, what you see on the screen is something that actually occurred in the natural world, and would have occurred whether I had been there or not."

You can see a couple shots of Jess's setup below:

Be sure to check out Jess Dunlap's portfolio for more stellar videos.

KEEP UP WITH JESS: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Vimeo

February 2013Jess dunlapLandscape timelapseMonolithTimelapseTimelapse video