#asturias #timelapse #photography #fotografia
Award for best timelapse in Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards
Award for best timelapse in the 34th edition of the International Photography and Video Contest Memorial Maria Luisa.
Award for best timelapse at the Barcelona Planet Film Festival 2024.
Award for best cinematography at the 11th Noida International Film Festival (India).
Winner of Award of Excellence at the Impact Docs Awards (California).
Finalist in the 8th edition of the Europa Film Festival.
Included in the official section of the Lookout Wild Film Festival (Tennessee), CortoGijon and Oriéntate Llanes festivals.
Asturias Emotion - The 4 Seasons is a timelapse project initiated in late 2020 by photographers David Alvarez Velicia and Juan I. Cuadrado with the aim of showcasing the beauty of the Spanish region of Asturias, exploring its stunning corners throughout the different seasons of the year.
This timelapse project has been much more complex than we initially expected, likely due to our eagerness to capture the best moments in the most beautiful places of Asturias. This is why the time spent on its production, has extended to three years. During this time, we've experienced cold, heat, sleep (a lot of sleep!), we've gotten wet, lost our way, our backs have hurt from carrying equipment, and we've had to handcraft part of our gear. In summary: we've enjoyed it!
In total, we've taken more than 500,000 photographs for the project, of which around 30,000 are part of the final result, and we've spent more than 5,000 hours in the field work. It's been a hard effort, but very rewarding.
Our goal has been to create a video of the highest possible quality that does justice to the beauty of Asturias, and we hope to have achieved it. We've also tried to incorporate innovative or less commonly used techniques in the world of timelapse, such as the use of fisheye lenses, the inclusion of nadir shots, and the application of cinematic techniques like the dolly zoom. For the latter, we designed and built a mechanism that shifts the camera's position on the slider, preventing the front part from being visible.
We also built a macro photography studio for the cover scenes of spring and autumn, consisting of a rotating table, a dual lighting system for plant growth and photography, an irrigation system, and more. Everything automated and controlled with an Arduino.
Many scenes have required very meticulous planning, such as the moonrise behind the 'Elogio del Horizonte' sculpture in Gijón. In this case, being located 2.6 km away from the sculpture, we had to calculate our position with a margin of error of just three meters to ensure the moon was perfectly centered at the right height. In other cases, preparation has been crucial: several days examining the terrain and seeking the best compositions, repeating the scene numerous times until we achieved the right lighting and circumstances. Some scenes we've repeated more than ten times.
We've also paid special attention to sound, with the composition and recording of a soundtrack adapted to each season and the inclusion of voiceovers and environmental effects.
The project follows a dual narrative structure: on one hand, the changing of the seasons, and on the other, within each season, the natural progression of a daily cycle, starting with sunrise and ending with nighttime. This added an extra layer of complexity as it required capturing scenes at specific moments of the day that are more challenging to obtain.
Throughout the video, we've tried to capture the vast landscape diversity of Asturias in its various aspects: the coast, mountains, forests, waterfalls, and more. In addition to capturing unique and challenging-to-obtain timelapse events, such as the triple rainbow at Cabo Peñas or the storm over Oviedo.
All of this work wouldn't have been possible without the collaboration of the people who support and tolerate us. In particular, we want to express our gratitude for their direct involvement in the project to Pat Alonso Triviño, who wrote the introductory texts for each season, to Cecilia Blanco ( / @ceciliablancoficial / ceciliablancoficial ), who provided her voice for the narrations, and to Rosana Yugueros Fernandez for her patience and assistance in capturing scenes.
Many other people have helped us in one way or another throughout the project. It's challenging to mention them all, but at the risk of forgetting someone, we'll try: Juan Carlos Cortina ( / @juancarloscortinatime... ), Juanra Noriega (www.namastephototours.com), Laura Muñoz, Fredi Marugán (www.fredimarugan.com), Begoña Martín, Nacho Granda, Héctor Argüelles, Roberto Rodriguez, and Pablo Rodriguez.
www.emocionasturias.com
0:00 Intro
0:30 Spring
2:36 Summer
5:15 Autumn
7:47 Winter