Experience the Harsh Winter of Czech Republic’s Famed Jeseniky Mountains

Czech image maker Jiri Bajak has been passionate about nature and landscapes for decades, so when he got into photography, his passion unfolded accordingly. But some fifteen years ago, he decided he did not just want to take pictures “like everyone else, I wanted something different.” So he started taking pictures with himself, turned around, in the front, and the landscape in the back.

But that change still didn’t seem to be enough to satisfy Jiri’s creative needs. It took him twelve more years to finally discover time lapse, his true passion, which led to his production company, Timefocus Films.

It´s great to be able to travel around the world, to relax and explore landscapes, to seek new adventures and hills with epic views, and to create time lapses.

Timefocus Films now also has its own YouTube-channel, with five breath-taking time lapse films on the channel. Looking at the number of views, “JESENIKY 4K” (video above) clearly stands out, so when Resource Travel got the chance to sit down with Jiri, we were curious to hear more about that specific film’s making-of.

This was the most difficult project I ever did. It took me two years to make, after I had spent hundreds, maybe thousands of hours outdoors. I shot more than 250,000 pictures, good for 5TB of footage, of which I eventually only used about 200GB. I also spent hundreds of hours more on post-production, but I mastered the art of time lapse during this time. Trial and error is priceless.

Which of your videos is your own personal favorite?

Definitely the 4K winter time lapse I made in Jeseniky. There’s just something magical about those nearly empty mountains, inversions, temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius or less and the charming atmosphere. My mind was free there.

All my trips have been ultra low cost, and all my future ones will be so too. For example, in Iceland we rented the worst Nissan Terrano imaginable. Its 4×4 did not work, so we had only its rear wheel drive to rely on, turn signals didn’t work, the hand break would sometimes fail, the wheel had a strong deviation to the right, the fan was smoldering and eventually we burned the car into total loss.

Where do you think you would be able to create your ultimate time lapse film?

My next destination will be Indonesia, but I have always dreamed about Alaska, Canada, Patagonia, Svalbard and other countries ruled by wilderness. Ultimately, I would love to create a northern lights time lapse. The first time I saw aurora borealis in Iceland, I thought it was sorcery. Truly wow.

Jiri is currently finalizing his sixth time-lapse, which should be up on Timefocus Film’s YouTube-page within the next few weeks. Part of his work can also be found on Timefocus Film’s Facebook page, and there is of course timefocusfilms.com (under construction until September).