Video of the Day: Tilt-shift Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro

Carnaval (or, as we like to write it, Carnival) was last week, but we’re just not done celebrating here at Gadling HQ. This video is from Carnaval 2011 in Rio de Janeiro, but we can’t stop watching it. Of course, we love tilt-shift and this video uses the technique perfectly. Though, we’d like some explanation about why it opens with someone getting rescued from the ocean by a helicopter. Well, Carnaval is crazy like that.

Video of the Day: Airport time lapse

We’re always fascinated by the happenings at airports that we don’t always get to see. That’s why we’re captivated by this time lapse video (with bonus tilt shift effect) shot at Aeroportul Internaţional Chişinău in Chişinău, Moldova. Myriad trucks and buses roll by, passengers board planes, luggage is loaded and people go about their day in this video that makes mundane airport life really seem quite beautiful.

For people who work at an airport, these events are everyday occurrences. For the rest of us, however, they are curiosities at which we marvel through windows as we wait for our own flights to board. Airports are neat places depending on your perspective.

A miniature city from up on high


From high above the city, jusojin captured this time-lapse AND tilt-shift video that miniaturizes the bustling city of Osaka, Japan. Trivializing every aspect of the Osaka hustle provides a toyish cityscape where people are reduced to ants and cars look like turbocharged micro machines in a lavish play-set.

Jusojin shot the video from the roof of the Umeda Sky Building – a two towered structure that boasts a sky garden called the “Floating Garden Observatory,” and an underground market designed to resemble the Osaka of a century ago. With modernity clashing with old school Japan in such a cool location, the 40 floor skyscraper is a must visit in Osaka.

Time Lapse (Umeda Sky Building2011) HD from jusojin on Vimeo.

The smallest big mountain you’ll ever see

Rule number 18.57b in the travel blogger’s handbook states that we have to fawn over tilt-shift videos, and this gem from Jackson Hole, Wyoming is no exception. In a way, it makes big-mountain snow riding a less daunting endeavor, making the precarious slopes look like tiny hills over which one might jump to get to the neighborhood creek or the community pool. In another way, it makes me miss the long hard days of double black diamonds and the trees in Blackcomb. Either way, it’s a great, unique method to capture this beautiful terrain.

Great work by Tristan Greszko in composing this slick video.

[via Wired and Jenna Schnuer]

Photo of the day – Tilt-shift Barcelona

Suddenly, we’re seeing tilt-shift images all over the place, in both still photography and video. Tilt-shift photography creates a mesmerizing shrinking effect. Above, this technique turns Barcelona’s Passeg de Gracia into a delightful miniature netherworld of toy trees, passengers, and vehicles. Thanks to reliable Gadling group pool contributor Gus NYC for today’s Photo of the Day contribution.

Have a tilt-shift image in your archives that deserves to be seen by a wider audience? Submit it to the Gadling group pool on Flickr. We might just select it to be a future Photo of the Day.