A Tiny Day in the Jackson Hole Backcountry

How often do you come across some creative endeavor which actually causes you exclaim: “Wow!, cool.”? (Or some derivative albeit more eloquent). In the next phase, you immediately and unwittingly start wondering how it was done.  You then move on, pondering the number of hours it must have taken to accomplish this feat. Your brain continues, unaided, along this line of thinking.  Thankfully, we have the internet to answer all of these question.  Well, this happened to me when I saw A Tiny Day in the Jackson Hole Backcountry.  The film was created by Tristan Greszko, an excellent outdoor photographer. The film uses a technique called Miniature Faking, backed by a remix of Pink Floyd by Pretty Lights, which you can download here.  This is what the internet has to say about this technique. (PS. I heart you internet. – place emoticon of your choice here).

Miniature faking is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is made to look like a photograph of a miniature scale-model. Blurring parts of the photo simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered in close up photography, making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is.  The pattern of blur in an image can strongly influence the perceived scale of the captured scene. For example, cinematographers working with miniature models can make scenes appear life size by using a small camera aperture, which reduces the blur variation between objects at different distances. The blurring can be done either optically when the photograph is taken, or by digital postprocessing. (For those geeks like me interested in how the brain perceives this process and the Bayesian Model behind it, see this paper from the UC Berkeley: Using Blur to Affect Perceived Distance and Size) I’ve played around with this process quite a bit and have posted some of my shots from Cuba in a gallery above called Little Havana.

Well, thanks to the interweb’s vast storehouse of knowledge, I am fairly well-versed with this technique.  But I am still amazed at Tristan Greszko’s film and still wonder how long it took for him to finish.

A Tiny Day in the Jackson Hole Backcountry from Tristan Greszko on Vimeo.

This mountain is like nothing you have skied before! Spend a day riding the tiny tram and shredding miniature backcountry lines in Jackson Hole. Be sure to let ‘er load completely and watch in fullscreen HD.

Music: Pretty Lights – Pink Floyd Time Remix – http://www.prettylightsmusic.com

Cameras: Canon 7D and 5D mkII   Lenses: 17-40 f/4L, 50 f/1.4, 70-200 f/4L

All effects created in post-production using Alien Skin Bokeh 2 in Photoshop, image stabilization and deflicker (using GBDeflicker) in After Effects, and frame motion in Final Cut Express.