Impressive timelapse brings you the futuristic Emirates from every angle

 

 

Winding down and getting ready for the weekend? If so, you might enjoy a few minutes with this cool time-lapse video shot in the ultra-modern cities of the United Arab Emirates. We know we did!

It's been a couple of weeks since we last watched a time-lapse, figuring that Martin Heck's 4K film shot in the land of the Lord of the Rings had set a benchmark that wouldn't soon be exceeded. We may have been too hasty, though. While we're not sure which we'd side with if forced to choose, photographer Artem Sergeevich Pryadko -- aka zweizwei motion timelapse -- certainly comes close with this awesome five-minute clip shot in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The two cities, each the capital of their respective emirate and built largely on revenues from the oil industry, are by far the most populous in the UAE. Overseas, they're best known for their dramatic architecture and incredibly rapid population growth. In just four decades, both have grown tenfold, mostly thanks to immigration from other areas.

Pryadko's clip really brings to life the vitality all that expansion has brought to these desert oases, not to mention their opulence -- and yet, there's also more than a hint of their past in the cities older areas. And the video manages to surprise us with some really spectacular angles and clever time-lapse motion tricks. (Clearly, Pryadko isn't afraid of heights, and had some pretty unfettered access to top-notch locations from which to shoot.) Filmed in early 2013 with a Canon 60D DSLR plus Canon, Sigma, and Tokina lenses, the original footage is available to license at 4K or even 5K resolution.

If you like this clip, you'll also enjoy Pryadko's other time-lapse works, shot in cities including Kiev, Moscow, Belarus, Singapore, and Moscow.