The GeekHiker

For those of you of a certain age, remember shows like “Land of the Lost“?  Specifically, the stop-motion dinosaurs that they had on the show, with the shallow depth-of-field and jerky motions that screamed, well, “stop-motion dinosaurs.”

What if our world were not our world at all, but instead we were all just stop-motion puppets?  Miniatures played with by the hands of some giant, unseen animator, and all our actions occurred and that jumpy stop-motion way?

Australian photographer Keith Loutit has envisioned just that, by way of a camera outfitted with a tilt-shift lens.  The first time I saw these, I sat in my chair with my jaw dropped, thinking at first it was the most complex and detailed miniature I’d ever seen, then realizing what it really was.  The effect, I think, is pretty amazing.

(If your connection can handle it, I highly, highly advise watching these full screen in HD.  And definitely have the sound on!)

You can see the rest of his vids here, and they’re all pretty impressive. I have to admit, it seriously makes me want to go drop a grand on a tilt-shift lens without thinking twice.

What I really like about Loutit’s work is that, in addition to the fantastic photography, he cuts it to music, and pretty darn good music at that.  Thus I discovered two new artists: Megan Washington and The Basics.  The full music videos for the animations above are below.

Washington – “Clementine”

The Basics – “With this Ship”

I actually like both versions of “With this Ship” a lot.  I don’t know why, but I’ve been listening that song quite a bit lately, even though the subject matter of the song doesn’t really seem to apply to my single life. I suppose there must be some meaning to that, but beats me what it could be.

Anyway, happy Friday!