Danish photographer creates stunning time-lapse video of Taiwan

丹麥攝影師製作了令人驚嘆的台灣時縮時攝影

Danish photographer creates stunning time-lapse video of several amazing places in Taiwan called 'A Taste of Taiwan'


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- A Danish photographer on May 29 uploaded to Facebook a stunning time-lapse video of several amazing places in Taiwan.

The photographer and IT consultant, 43-year-old Henrik Matzen, has traveled back and forth to Taiwan for 13 years now, each time staying for several months to work and meet with his Taiwanese friends and colleagues. Matzen says that this particular video, titled "A Taste of Taiwan," was shot over the course of three months, and once filming was completed, his business partner Jonas Hoholt, also from Denmark, edited the footage.

Matzen and Hoholt manage a company called "FIRSTLAPSE," which specializes in professional timelapse photography.

Describing the video as a "gift to the Taiwan community," Matzen explained his inspiration for making the film to Taiwan News:


"I love Taiwan and feel like home here, and I always wanted the world to see the beauty of Taiwan. It inspired me to go out and spend hours to shoot these scenes and share it with the world to see beautiful Taiwan. I have seen how Taiwan has changed a lot since 2005, and often Taiwan has a lot of sad local news all the time. I want to bring something more happy to make people feel the love and energy. This is my way to show Taiwan and the Taiwanese people our love for Taiwan."



To give the readers an understanding of how difficult it is to make a time-lapse video such as this, Matzen used his footage of the opening sequence sunset captured from Xiangshan (Elephant) Mountain on a hot summer day last year as an example. Matzen had to carry 25 kg of equipment to the top of the mountain and then spend four hours capturing the sunset and the night skyline as they slowly took form.

Time-lapse videos are constructed from thousands of images taken together over an extended period of time at set intervals and then linked together in sequence. This video, which only lasted one minute and thirty eight seconds, consists of 70,000 still images.



The following are the locations show in the video in order of appearance:

1. Taipei: Xiangshan
2. Kaohsiung: Area of Tiger/Dragon Pagoda
3. Taipei: National Taiwan University
4. Taipei: Baofu Temple in Yungho
5. Taipei: Private rooftop in Wanhua
6. Taipei: Xiaobitan
7. Taipei: Private rooftop in Wanhua
8. Kaohsiung: Monkey Hill / Mountain
9. Taipei: Street Crossing in Zhonghe
10. Kaohsiung: Formosa Boulevard
11. Taipei: Street Footbridge in Zhonghe
12. Kaohsiung: Monkey Hill / Mountain
13. Taichung: Rainbow from hotel window
14. Kaohsiung
15. Taichung
16. Kaohsiung: Fo Guang Shan
17. Taipei: Dahu Park
18. Taipei: Maokong
19. Taipei: Nangang riverside
20. Yilan
21. Far East Century Park / ADATA Technology IT company
22. Kaosiung: Monkey Hill/Mountain
23. Shifen Waterfall
24. Taipei: CKS Memorial Hall
25. Taipei: Nangang, China Trust Headquarters