WE ARE F-STOP: Kyrgyzstan with mattia bicchi
My name is Mattia Bicchi, I am a professional timelapse and hyperlapse photographer/filmmaker from Italy, however I’ve been living in London for the past seven years, creating Timelapse for big and small films production companies, such as BBC, Ford, Virgin Atlantic, Mulberry and many others.
In June I spent 17 days in Kyrgyzstan, a country you might never hear of before, (I didn’t till last August), as a Timelapse photographer, I am always looking for new or less touristy places to shoot and Kyrgyzstan it’s definitely one of them... As mountains cover 90% of the country, the landscape it’s truly breathtaking and depending on the region, you can find a wide variety of places, from alpines lakes, rocky deserts, vast valley to huge mountains, its tallest Peak is 7,439m.
I felt in love with the unique landscapes and the kind, welcoming people of Kyrgyzstan.
Words and images by Mattia Bicchi
Tourism here has started growing in the last couple of years and this country has a real potential to became the next top destination for photographers, hikers, back packers and alpinists! At this moment the tourist facilities are not ready for mass tourism like Iceland or Patagonia, but that’s also the beauty of it, you will be immerse in the culture and the truly lifestyle of the locals.
During the first part of the trip I explored with Visit Karakol and landscape photographers, Albert Dros, the south region around Lenin Peak, Arslanbob and Sary-Chelek, in the second part I hiked few days in the Karakol Valley, visiting Ala-Kul an alpine lake at 3.500m and Sary-Jaz Valley close to China’s borders
For this trip I traveled with my trusty f-stop Loka, that I’ve owned for almost 5 years, carrying all my Timelapse kit around Kyrgyzstan, I put this bag through so much, driving off-road with 4x4, horse riding and hiked for days to the best mountains range of Central Asia, during thunderstorms, snow and sunny weather!
To shoot the Timelapse in 8K, I used the Sony A7RIII with various Canon lenses, 16-35 f/4L, 24-70 f/4L and 70-200 f/4L, the motion was created with the Rhino RŌV Pro Traveler and the Dynamic Perception Stage One and R.
To film the Travel Journals, I used the Sony A7III with the Samyang 24mm f/2.8 and the Zhiyun crane M.
I came back with 5TB of data, 42.000 Raw files which converted in 107 Timelapse; I also made 6 Tavel Journals showing the behind the scene and the travel involved. The edit of this film took around two months.
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