A timelapse as a single picture - PARKING 24/7 - Airport Nürnberg

Yesterday, I spent around 3 hours in the area of the Albrecht Dürer Flughafen Nürnberg, the Airport of Nuremberg in Germany to run another experiment. I wanted to transform a time lapse video into a single picture.

To all who got to know my work already, it is nothing new that I strive for perfection, because details matter. In that sense, I want to stand out of the local competition by creating something very unique, only a few photographers can replicate. In my previous post called “The hero shot - behind the scenes”, I described what it takes to create unique imagery. I stayed at one place over a long period time. We’re not talking about 20 minutes; no, about 2-3 hours. Only that gives me the unique chance, to blend together moments in time, a concept well-known from time lapse videos, where you leave your camera in one spot over a long period of time, accelerate the footage and watch the sunset fading into the blue hour and night. Check out the quick behind-the-scenes time lapse, my goPro recorded, below. (Sorry for the bad composition and quality. I only had my GoPro with me and had to leave it on a junction box. Anyway, it helps to outline my point and concept).

For imagery, the approach is similar. Crucial is though, to step up in the post-production game, or in other words: Photoshop! In “The hero shot - behind the scenes”, this blend happened harmonically all across the frame of the picture. It still looked believable and not like something impossible in nature (your brain somehow still thinks witnessing a sunset and an illuminated building is totally normal). In my newest shot, which I’m going to showcase in this post, I created a horizontal time-blend, merging the golden hour and sunset picture on the left, fading into a blue hour picture on the right. Does that still look believable to you, if I had not mentioned it? Tell me in the comment section about it!

Either way, it goes along very well with the title that could also be used commercially for the airport: “Parking 24/7”. All day, all night. This message is emphasised by the car trails on the left and the right, as they drive in by nighttime and leave it by night. How do you like the idea and the execution of this experimental time-blend?

PS: For perfectionists I have captured 2 motorcyclists driving up the entire road from the bottom to the top. ;)

The final result. Sunset (L), blue hour (R)

Check out the before-and-after slider to see the magic happen ;)

And below a few more casual shots I took with my back-up camera while I left the Fujifilm X-T3 locked-in on my tripod. That way, I can still do something else when I have to wait 2,5 hours to capture only one image.

The hero shot - Behind the scenes - Excelsior Hotel | Fürth | Germany

Taking good pictures is one thing. Trying to create the best picture possible the other. In order to take this picture, I put in a lot of effort. Before going all the way by bike to Fürth (1 hour), I scouted the best location as good as possible beforehand. On the hotel's website, I found already a nice looking picture but to stand out from the local and international competition, it is essential to create the best picture possible! In order to do just that, I spent 3 hours at the exact same spot documenting the light changing throughout the golden hour, sunset and blue hour. Afterwards, I spent processed this picture for almost 2 hours to push it to its limits. Most of my clients are surprised when I tell them that a good picture takes lots of time, in this case 5 hours for one picture. I think, the difference is visible and the pricing justified. What do you think?

I blended together multiple pictures into one, so that I could show all the best moments in time: The streetlights were turned on, the light fell so I could capture car trails and the reflections in the water. The lights in the inside of the pyramid turned on, as well as the blue tip, the yellow strip light and the Hotel letters. As the sky did not turn out to be so great, I browsed my personal sky library for a fitting sky and replaced it. But attention: This sky also had to be reflected in the long-exposure water. I hope this gives you a proper idea of what time, effort and knowledge it takes to put together such a hero shot. It is always challenging and fun to create something extraordinary that most people have not seen before. And as an architectural photographer you cannot always wait for the perfect weather. You get booked for a day or two and have to deliver. Hence, it’s very important to improvise, pre-visualise your shot and be prepared for unspectacular skies or bad weather.

The modern architecture of Cambridge - Storey's field centre

Before visiting Cambridge, Cambridgeshire , I somehow already had a predefined picture of this city. I imagined it to be really dark due to dark brick buildings everywhere. But actually, it turned out to be the complete opposite: It was a lovely very multifaceted, lively, modern and green city. The city centre is a beautifully orchestrated harmony of classic architecture in symbiosis with modern and trendy stores, cafés and restaurants.

The outskirts of Cambridge are in sharp contrast to that, consisting of entirely newly built districts, with no cafés, restaurants or any other services. It’s a classic example of de-urbanisation: Families live in the outskirts of the city in order to live in a calm neighbourhood with lots of free space, at the cost of commuting to the city centre for services. Still, this new district of Storey’s Field has not been finished and some more sub-districts have to been built, but I loved it already. The architectural landmark in this area is clearly the Community Hall, which I had the pleasure to photograph.

One day before the shoot, I already scouted the location, to figure out the optimal lighting for the front of the building. So I used the augmented reality function of my Photo Pills app to check at which time the golden sunlight was about to illuminate the front of the Community Hall’s building. That way, I could perfectly plan ahead my shots for the next day, without wasting time on-location waiting for the perfect light.

The Community Hall itself has been designed to become a more important place in the new community at Storey’s Field, to become its civic centre or town hall. It offers opportunities for weddings, music concerts, funerals, political debate, which gives it a significance above and beyond a space for hobbies, exercise, local groups and kids parties. To address this enhanced symbolic value for the community, the architects stepped the building side wards to address a longer view in the masterplan, and set it back to create a gathering space outside the Hall and a parents’ drop-off space outside the Nursery. To complete the sense of civic pride, the external walls of the Hall are lined with comfortable seats to stop and chat to neighbours while you wait to enter.