Skip to main content

L.A. never looked so good in this beautiful hyperlapse that took two years to shoot

Los Angeles Hyperlapse/Timelapse Compilation
Done well, hyperlapse sequences can look pretty darn awesome. Take Vadim Tereshchenko‘s recent piece featuring Los Angeles — believe us, the City of Angels has never looked so good. They do, however, require some serious planning, long hours, and an imaginative mind.

It took the L.A.-based Russian filmmaker over two years to compile the necessary segments for this particular hyperlapse, which, since its release in the last few days, has been picking up praise from across the Web.

Vadim used a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 17-40mm f/4 lens to shoot the individual frames that make up the two-minute piece, with Adobe’s After Effects software helping the filmmaker to get the hyperlapse looking just how he wanted it. The carefully selected soundtrack is a remix by Seattle-based Odesza of One Day They’ll Know, originally by Pretty Lights.

Vadim told Digital Trends he first became interested in the idea of shooting hyperlapse videos in 2012, and, realizing it was possible to obtain spectacular results with little more than a camera and a tripod, wanted to give it a go. However, his initial efforts fell well short of his expectations.

First-year frustrations

“For the first year I was trying and always failed,” Vadim said. “The clips were shaky and looked terrible, and it was only when I started working on my L.A. hyperlapse that I started getting good results.”

The Vladivastok native told DT that for him, the greatest challenge when shooting a hyperlapse is finding a great location that’ll gain even more from a striking sunrise, sunset, or simply changing cloud formations, in the process creating a striking sequence for the final video.

He adds that when shooting you always have to expect the unexpected. A couple of times he’s had to abandon a sequence, once when a car accident happened close by and again when he was almost robbed of all his equipment.

So, besides keeping an eye out for ne’er-do-wells looking to nab your gear, does Vadim have any advice for budding hyperlapse creators? “Watch video tutorials, there’s so many of them on sites like YouTube now, far more than when I started,” he says, adding, “And then go outside and try, try, try. That’s all you need to do – but be ready to put in a lot of time and passion.”

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Watch an acclaimed director use the iPhone 15 Pro to shoot a movie
acclaimed director uses iphone 15 to shoot movie shot on pro midnight

Shot on iPhone 15 Pro | Midnight | Apple

As part of its long-running Shot on iPhone series, Apple recently handed acclaimed Japanese director Takashi Miike (Audition, 13 Assassins, The Happiness of the Katakuris) an iPhone 15 Pro to shoot a short film.

Read more
How to remove location data from your iPhone photos
How to transfer photos from an iPhone to an iPhone

We all love making memories, and a great way to collect those memories is to take a quick snap of a gorgeous landscape, a party in full swing, or a particularly incredible meal. The Apple iPhone now also adds a location to your pictures, meaning it can collate those images together into a location-themed album, or show you all the shots you've taken in a specific location. It's a fun little addition, and it's one that adds a lot of personality to the Photos app.

Read more
‘Photoshopped’ royal photo causes a stir
The Princess of Wales with her children.

[UPDATE: In a message posted on social media on Monday morning, Princess Kate said that she herself edited the image, and apologized for the fuss that the picture had caused. “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing," she wrote, adding, "I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused."]

Major press agencies have pulled a photo of the U.K.’s Princess of Wales and her children amid concerns that it has been digitally manipulated.

Read more