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[ Professional timelapse photography worldwide ] Instagram: henrikmatzen
I managed to squeeze in and fly over for almost a week off in Thailand 🇹🇭 - balancing between my insanely busy 12-15 hour working days 💻 and hospital visits 🏥
This was only my 2nd visit to Thailand in my life, as most of you know, Taiwan 🇹🇼 has always been my favorite place to explore. I picked a spot in the most southern end of Phuket, Rawai, which was more quiet and with amazing beaches, fishing villages and a more cozy vibe.
One huge surprise to me was to find that almost all tourists and even foreigners staying there were from Russia. I have never seen that many Russians in my life, even seeing that Phuket airport had signs in Thai and Russian languages instead of English says alot 😁
I got some super nice Russian neighbour's next door at the apartment I stayed, it was a pleasure meeting you and thanks for your help on my late night arrival day 🥳
The sunsets of Thailand is something else, I mean, almost every night you can be quite sure to have some sort of stunning sunset 😍 I got to shoot some super nice day to night timelapses, one even featuring tide water 😍
I am pretty sure I'll be back again for more 📸 🌴
I’ve often been quite annoyed by my tripod ball heads—especially when framing photos using heavy telephoto lenses, or when I’m down on my knees in the forest shooting macro photography of glowing mushrooms. Why? Because they can be a real pain to balance, level, and frame perfectly.
That’s all history now, since I started using the TH15 Geared Tripod Head. Yes, it sounds very Transformers-like—and honestly, it kind of looks like it too 😅
It is a bit bulky and not exactly lightweight—but it gets the job done better than anything I’ve used before. My camera has never felt this sturdy and stable 📸
The benefits, especially as a timelapse photographer? Far fewer blurry frames. And with a load capacity of up to 6 kg, it handles my Canon R5 and 600mm lens without breaking a sweat 💪
As you know, I only work with brands and products I genuinely use and believe in—and this is definitely one of them. I also noticed they’re currently running a 10% spring promo on Neewer (.com) , so this might be your chance if you’re considering an upgrade 😉
I’ve often been quite annoyed by my tripod ball heads—especially when framing photos using heavy telephoto lenses, or when I’m down on my knees in the forest shooting macro photography of glowing mushrooms. Why? Because they can be a real pain to balance, level, and frame perfectly.
That’s all history now, since I started using the TH15 Geared Tripod Head. Yes, it sounds very Transformers-like—and honestly, it kind of looks like it too 😅
It is a bit bulky and not exactly lightweight—but it gets the job done better than anything I’ve used before. My camera has never felt this sturdy and stable 📸
The benefits, especially as a timelapse photographer? Far fewer blurry frames. And with a load capacity of up to 6 kg, it handles my Canon R5 and 600mm lens without breaking a sweat 💪
As you know, I only work with brands and products I genuinely use and believe in—and this is definitely one of them. I also noticed they’re currently running a 10% spring promo on www.neewer.com
, so this might be your chance if you’re considering an upgrade 😉
16/02/2026
新年快樂 ~ 恭喜發財 🇹🇼 🐴 🎊 🏮 Happy Lunar New Year! The fireworks are heard through the windows as I write this, and one of the larger temples near me had a huge queue of people, all waiting to race to be the first to enter the temple at midnight. Meanwhile, I am working as usual, to me, this is just another working day, and Europe doesn't sleep in IT business. For the last few months my working days has been around 12-15 hours with almost no time or energy to do anything else, especially not timelapse photography. Those who follow the IT channel a bit, probably will know why - the super cycle of memory and storage demand and pricing has sky rocketed since September 2025, keeping me insanely busy. That aside, I did get to do a few tinelapses, one being a stunning sunset a couple of weeks ago in Kaohsiung (the first few photos of this post) , and then a few shots around Taipei area as well. One of the photos shows me how most of my day is spend though - infront of two screens tapping the keyboard working non stop 💻 - Wishing you all a healthy, happy and fabulous new year of the horse 🐴🇹🇼 🎊 🏮
BTS by 🥷
12/01/2026
It was the day before an announced typhoon in the summer of 2025, an extremely hot and sunny day - just the way I genuinely love it 🔥☀️❤️ We made the journey to Shimen Arch Bridge on the north coast of Taiwan, and I got wonderful company by fellow photographer 🇸🇪 The tide water was tricky, I moved my camera gear 3 times as the tidewater got dangerously close to my equipment. Each time I had to restart and shoot all over again 🙄 The cute little Taiwan 🇹🇼 bear seen in the sand on the last photo can be purchased from Lukas' Taiwan shop ( link on his bio 🛒 ❣️) The camera did a great job shooting the behind the scenes. The final result can be seen in the latest YouTube VLOG - "Spots of Taiwan" - check it out 🔥💕
working hard from night to nearly morning to fix and restore roads ❤️🇹🇼 # nighttoday
10/01/2026
Finally I paid my first visit to this beautiful pagoda in 2025 - about time, after 20 years of visiting Taiwan. Unfortunately I have never really been around during cherry blossom season, that would of course have been the best timing for the shot. It started to rain on my way there, so the shot I had originally planned and had in mind wasn't possible. Instead I found a bit of shelter and spend around 3 hours there shooting from day to night - it can all be seen in the latest VLOG on YouTube (Channel: FIRSTLAPSE) - link in first comment 👇👇🌃📺🇹🇼
06/01/2026
One of the scenes in the new VLOG takes place around the famous Grand Hotel here in Taipei, Taiwan 🇹🇼 Originally I planned to shoot a sunset around the Marthyrs Shrine nearby, but didn't realize, that they actually close the front gates at a fixed time every day - so I rushed to pack down all my gear, and headed up to the Grand Hotel to shoot my plan B. The view of Taipei from up there is really beautiful 😍 Check out my results of this scene and many other beautiful Taipei locations in my latest VLOG. Link in the first comment 👇👇🙂
05/01/2026
The scooter waterfall 🛵🛵 in Taipei, Taiwan 🇹🇼 - something which was on my list to shoot for more than 10 years, and finally I got to tick it off in 2025 ✅- did the day to night sunset in the evening, and went back the following day in the early morning to shoot the scooter water fall of the crazy busy morning rush hour traffic. The final timelapses of my many hours of work can be seen in the latest Taipei VLOG on YouTube (Channel: FIRSTLAPSE) - enjoy 🛵🛵🛵🛵😍
02/01/2026
How do you like these views of Raohe Night Market (饒河街觀光夜市)? Raohe is a historic, vibrant street market in Taipei's Songshan District, famous for its incredible Taiwanese street food. If you wonder why I suddenly changed clothes, it's simply because I had to shoot the same scene multiple times on different days to get the shots I wanted. As the behind-the-scenes photos reveal, I am even multitasking, working on the laptop while also keeping an eye on controlling the camera from my phone or tablet. I believe this is the first time someone did so many full day-to-night timelapses of Raohe. To watch the actual timelapses, jump over to YouTube and watch the latest VLOG (channel: FIRSTLAPSE) 🔔✅
02/01/2026
2025 was a year where I feel I finally managed to shoot a lot of timelapse again, in fact, I photoshoot so many that I made an entire VLOG with timelapses only from Taipei. This is slow content, so I go against mainstream by not releasing fast paced content which you need to consume really fast. The world is already moving fast enough (especially with timelapse... 😅) - so take this as a short break of your day to enjoy the beauty of Taipei.. of Taiwan.. and discover the capital in ways you probably did not see it yet. Feel free to share, as always :-) Enjoy! 🥰
Taiwan VLOG - Is Taipei Really That Beautiful? Happy New Year! Join me as I photoshoot timelapse sequences around Taipei, Taiwan and discover places you have probably never seen this way before. This chan...
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