Respect Authority

Last week, I wrote about Australian photographer Ben Thomas’ use of the tilt shift technique in photography. Apparently he’s not the only Australian photographer on a tilt shift kick — Keith Loutit has been creating fascinating time lapse, tilt shift online shorts. They’re a little low on the substance side, but are definitely cool and frankly, almost do a better job of showing off the technique than still photography does.

While certainly not recommended for our agoraphobic viewers, the video does a nice job of showing what we must look like to the alien motherships circling our planet. Don’t bother trying to give them the middle finger, they’re hopelessly evolved beyond our comprehension. I’ve heard rumors that their obscene gesture of choice when involved in an intergalactic fender bender is to put up all of their fingers. It’s horrifying, I know. Our stupid one finger can’t compete with that shit, that’s just craziness!

Okay, that entire paragraph was craziness, I’ll admit it. Just check out the video, already, and I’ll try to calm myself down in the meantime.

You can watch more of Loutit’s videos on his Vimeo page. He says he hopes his films “help people take a second look at places that are very familiar to them.” They certainly do — remember as a kid hanging upside down from your bed and realizing how different the room looked from your new perspective? This is sort of similar, only it’s like you’re hanging from a really big bed. Like maybe Shaq’s bed. Somebody big’s big, big bed.

Tilt-shift photography isn’t anything new, but for the uninitiated and the well-versed alike, well-done shots using this technique never fail to intrigue at the very least. The first time I found tilt-shift photography was a jaw-dropping experience, and while flickr groups have certainly mined it beyond all reason, Australian photographer Ben Thomas has practically made it his name.

Thomas, the so-called “City Shrinker,” just won the Australian Sony Projections’ new photographer of the year award. Jealous curmudgeons will naturally find this offensive as Thomas’ photography isn’t exactly innovative — the technique has been well-explored, and well-exploited at that, by many successful photographers. Nonetheless, a brief look at some of the City’s Shrinker’s work shows that he not only lives up to his name, but also routinely produces photography that inspires a sense of discovery, or possibly appeals to your inner metropolis-stomping monster… if you happen to be Godzilla. And if you are… hello, I don’t believe we’ve met. Read More ›