This is my humble tribute to one of my favorite film directors. This short movie was inspired by the famous opening of Woody Allen’s movie ‘Manhattan’ (1979). Filmed with a Canon 5D Mark II, still video frames rendered in black & white at 24 frames per second (except the opening south Manhattan shot which was accelerated 3000% faster), added the two black bars to give the cinemascope look and finally added the original soundtrack with woody’s voice.
Short film: “New York in Black and White”
Filmed, edited by Alejandro Pérez
This is my first blog post of the “Every picture has a story” series. A picture can say a thousand words but sometimes they cannot say what was involved to take them. Here is the first story behind my pictures.
The plan was to take a picture of the Griffith Observatory park with downtown Los Angeles in the background at sunset. Plain and simple and yet I wasn’t too sure how to get to this location where the observatory and downtown are aligned in the frame. So I planned to be there way before sunset in order to have plenty of time ahead to find it.
I started my journey at the Getty museum and asked the Uber driver to pick me up at the museum and drop me by the Hollywood sign and from there I thought i’d walk on some trail to find a good spot… but poor swiss me, I didn’t expect the traffic to be that bad and even with hours ahead I arrived late! I rushed to find this place and finally made it completely soaked in sweat. I didn’t have my tripod (I know I know… stupid me), hence I put my camera on my bag which is something no photographer recommends, too unstable and too close to the ground. I quickly pulled out bushes to get an unobstructed view for the lens, I had my 70-200mm but I would recommend the 400mm. The sun was already low but I managed to get this one which I think is not too bad after all.
So if you want to know where this spot is located: Mt Chapel trail, not far from the antenna of the LA communications facility. If you happen to have others or better suggestions for shooting locations of the Griffith Observatory I would be glad to know them, just leave a message in the comment section below… 🙂
Shooting location on Google Maps :
SWISS | Boeing 777-300ER | Zürich (ZRH) – Los Angeles (LAX) | Flying over Greenland and USA
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
A scenic window seat flight from Zürich (ZRH) – Los Angeles (LAX) onboard the SWISS B777-300 ER (HB-JND). Flying over Iceland, Greenland, Canada, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California. Special thing on this one, it’s the first time I use one of my music demo as the soundtrack for this video. #Swiss #FlySwiss #WindowSeat #Aviation #ScenicFlight
Read More»Mojave desert
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
One day out of LA to explore the strange beauty of the Mojave desert with my old swiss friend Florian. We drove from Burbank to Mojave passing through the Angeles National Forest, Palmdale and Lancaster.
Getty Center
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
The Getty center… where architecture, photography, painting, sculpture and many other kind of arts meet.
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
If you are planning to visit the space shuttle Endeavour hall at the California Science Center in Los Angeles and are looking for some tips and advices to photograph the Endeavour hall, this article might be interesting for you.
Read More»Bryce Canyon
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
Bryce Canyon National Park is located between Zion Park and Kodachrome Basin. It is one of the most beautiful parks in Utah and is therefore more frequented and less wild. Bryce Canyon is not a canyon, but rather a limestone plateau, located between 2’018 and 2’748 m. Once covered by the sea, it is now covered with fairy chimneys, here called hoodoos. Great hiking and photography is to be done in the park, to admire the rocks, ranging from yellow to dark red as well as chipmunks, a kind of small squirrels.
Death Valley
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
Death Valley National Park offers a variety of landscapes for photographers. There is a large range and diversity of scenes. From valleys to sand dunes to canyons to salt flats to colorful wildflowers, you can come away with many photos from one national park yet people will think you visited many different locations.
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Zion
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
Road trip on Utah State Route 9. Taking the twists and turns along the very scenic 14 miles (23 km) passing through the Zion National Park.
Grand Canyon
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
The Colorado Grand Canyon is certainly the most famous and amazing park in the USA. It is in any case the most visited park of the American West (more than 4 million visitors each year).
Colorado, for millions of years, has dug this fabulous canyon.
San Fransisco
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
One day if I go to heaven …
I’ll look around and say, ‘It ain’t bad, but it ain’t San Francisco.
– Herb Caen
Monument Valley
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
Monument Valley (Utah/Arizona) is a true joy for photographers. The mittens, the landscape, the movie souvenirs.. try to spend at least 2 days in this fabulous park.
Las Vegas
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
Personal project
Director, camera, video editing, sound mix: Alejandro Pérez
Narration : Kayla
Music : Peter Gabriel (San Jacinto instrumental – New Blood)
Software: Adobe Premiere Pro.
Summer 2015 during our road trip we visited the Bryce Canyon National Park located in the state of Utah in the USA. The park is a delight for hiking and photography. This is a short video of our visit narrated by Kayla, 12 years old, in french (english subtitles available).
Yes I know, lots of NYC stuff in this site already but I can’t help myself when it comes to the Big Apple. I travelled with friends and among them, Attilio, celebrating his 50 years, that and photography made this trip.
As Woody Allen says in “Manhattan” : “New York is a black & white city”. I tried to edit my last pictures in b&w. Some I find Ok and other.. well… no too bad. Anyway, not great art for sure but at least I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed shooting them 🙂
New York Calendar
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
A new calendar with pictures taken during my 2013 and 2014 trips to the Big Apple. 13 Color printed 60x35cm photographs with your chosen year and starting month. If you are interested in buying one drop me a message via the contact page.
Read More»New York Trip 2014
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
Video Recording & Edit : Alejandro
Music Credits : Tumbling Tumbleweeds (Sons of the Pioneers), The Sound of da Police (KRS One), Jericho (The Prodigy), Klaus I Love You (M83), Imagine (John Lennon), Billie Jean (Michael Jackson), Mine (George Gershwing).
Video Gear : Canon 5D Mark II + Lense 16-35mm f/2.8 + Lense 24-70mm f/2.8 + Lense 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM
View photo gallery of this trip
Manhattan 1982 vs 2013
Posted by Alejandro Pérez
These two shots taken from the Empire State Building are 31 years apart. The first was taken by my mother during our first US visit with her trusty Canon A1 and I took the second one last April. The old slide was taken in summer whilst the 2013 shot was taken in spring.
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