Friday, April 15, 2011
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the people of Kalampaka,
Elena Guest House,
D. Theodorakos - Online
'Suspended in the Air | Meteora' has been chosen by Coldplay
as Today's Exhibit on Saturday 26 Nov, 2011
on Coldplay's Exhibition Room.
3 days at the holy rock mountains of Meteora. I've always wanted to shoot timelapse in this unique region and i finally managed to do it. The weather was perfect for tourism but not the ideal one for me - for 72 hours there were no clouds in the sky for a decent timelapse. Still, i tried to capture the stars above the rocks & the movement of the earth with long exposures starting at midnight until 08:00 in the morning. Probably the most exhausting trip so far, but it sure was a good one. I was shooting standing in awe at this truly, one of a kind, extraordinary place. One more appointment with Meteora is on the way, this time to capture the rocks during the heavy winter.
On the technical side, i would like to thank Sachtler for contacting me to test their brand new Cine DSLR fluid head. The gear arrived from Germany and i worked with it all 3 days. Very well-designed, solid, stable and above all light. For this project i actually left my regular head/tripod in my hotel and used only the Cine DSLR & tripod. I'm focusing on the light construction because it's very important to travel light when you have to shoot places & areas where you can go only by foot. The light construction made my shooting a lot more easier at the top of the rock mountains since i had to go up there by foot, climbing the mountains as well as walking up hundreds of rock stairs to reach my various shooting points. Well done Sachtler! Special thanks also to MC Manios & the guys from RentPhotoVideo, Kostas & Dimitris.
Equipment:
- Canon 7D
- Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
- Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8
- Canon 70-200mm f/2.8
- Canon 2x Extender
- Intervalometer Canon TRC TC-80N3
- Sachtler CINE DSLR
- Zacuto Z-Finder
- Ikan VX7
Settings: [Day timelapse]
- 1/1250 exposure [UPDATED - Corrected]
- 3 seconds interval [UPDATED - Corrected]
- 100 ISO
- f/2.8 aperture
- Color Space: Adobe RGB
Settings: [Night timelapse]
- 13 seconds exposure
- 15 seconds interval
- 1250 ISO
- f/2.8 aperture
- Color Space: Adobe RGB
Audio:
- Audio editing in WaveLab 7 for MAC
- Additional sounds from The Freesound Project
Music:
- My Name is Lincoln by Steve Jablonsky (iTunes).
Editing:
- Converted to Apple ProRes 422 with MPEG Streamclip
- Edited in Final Cut Pro 7
- Rendered at 24fps, 1080p, 2.39:1 aspect ratio, exported to ProRes 422
- Transcoded to h.264 with MPEG Streamclip
Useful APPS:
- Helios [Sun Position Calculator]
- Sun Seeker [Solar path Calculator / The arc of the sun]
- MoonPhase [Moon Position Calculator]
- Artemis [Director's Viewfinder]
- pCAM [Field of View/Depth of Field Calculator]
- MatchLens [Match Lens Calculator]
For further info: info@alexandrosmaragos.com
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In a region of almost inaccessible sandstone peaks, monks settled on these 'columns of the sky' from the 11th century onwards. Twenty-four of these monasteries were built, despite incredible difficulties, at the time of the great revival of the eremetic ideal in the 15th century. Their 16th-century frescoes mark a key stage in the development of post-Byzantine painting.
'Suspended in the air' (the meaning of Meteora in Greek), these monasteries represent a unique artistic achievement and are one of the most powerful examples of the architectural transformation of a site into a place of retreat, meditation and prayer. The Meteora provide an outstanding example of the types of monastic construction which illustrate a significant stage in history, that of the 14th and 15th centuries when the eremitic ideals of early Christianity were restored to a place of honour by monastic communities, both in the Western world (in Tuscany, for example) and in the Orthodox Church.
Built under impossible conditions, with no practicable roads, permanent though precarious human habitations subsist to this day in the Meteora, but have become vulnerable under the impact of time. The net in which intrepid pilgrims were hoisted up vertically alongside the 373 m cliff where the Varlaam monastery dominates the valley symbolizes the fragility of a traditional way of life that is threatened with extinction.
The monasteries are built on rock pinnacles of deltaic origin, known as Meteora, which rise starkly over 400 m above the Peneas valley and the small town of Kalambaka on the Thessalian plain. Chemical analysis suggests that the pinnacles were created some 60 million years ago in the Tertiary period, emerging from the cone of a river and further transformed by earthquakes. The Meteora are enormous residual masses of sandstone and conglomerate which appeared through fluvial erosion. Seismic activity increased the number of fault lines and fissures and hewed the shapeless masses into individual sheer rock columns. Hermits and ascetics probably began settling in this extraordinary area in the 11th century. In the late 12th century a small church called the Panaghia Doupiani or Skete was built at the foot of one of these 'heavenly columns', where monks had already taken up residence.
During the fearsome time of political instability in 14th century Thessaly, monasteries were systematically built on top of the inaccessible peaks so that by the end of the 15th century there were 24 of them. They continued to flourish until the 17th century. Today, only four monasteries - Aghios Stephanos, Aghia Trias, Varlaam and Meteoron - still house religious communities.
The area includes forested hills and river valley with riverine forests of Platanus orientalis and species such as the endemic Centaurea lactifolia (found near Koniskos village) and Centaurea kalambakensi. The nearest protected area is Trikala Aesthetic Forest (28 ha), created in 1979, which has been planted with Pinus halepensis and Cupressus sempervivens. The potential vegetation cover is described as supra-Mediterranean, with climax cover of Quercus and Ostrya species and Fagus sylvatica beech forest above 700 m.
- The monastery of Holy Trinity was a filming location
in the 1981 James Bond "For Your Eyes Only".
- Scenes from "Tintin and the Golden Fleece"
were also shot at the Meteora monasteries.
- The rock area was a primary inspiration behind
the Linkin Park album of the same name.
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