A Tilt-Shift Romp Through The Train-Dotted Swiss Countryside

Now that HD-video capable DSLR cameras are finding their way into the hands of photographic tricksters, beautiful stuff is beginning to emerge. The latest is tilt-shifted train porn by two Dutchmen.

The Swiss and their trains are more than the stuff of metaphor. The Schweizerische Bundesbahnen—abbreviated as SBB-CFF-FFS to reflect three of the federal state's four official languages—is indeed a slick, elegant and most of all, punctual way to criss-cross Switzerland's mountainous countryside.

Those of you who read that aloof slice of typographic and layout heaven known as Monocle magazine have probably noticed all the little things which make SBB so good in Issue 23, including the beautiful Schweizer Bahnhofsuhr, designer Hans Hilfiker's 1944 Swiss Railways Clock. And to add insult to capitalist injury, the whole shebang is owned and run by the state.

Employing a load of high-end Canon gear, Dutch videographers Andi Leemann and Jeri Peier have created a six-minute homage to chocolate-land's rolling clockwork. Mounted on 1080p-capable Canon EOS 5D Mark II bodies were tilt-shift lenses: a short telephoto TS-E 90mm f/2.8 and a wide-angle TS-E 24mm f/3.5, the latter with a 1.4× teleconverter.

They filmed the trains that move between the villages of Sisikon and Göschenen. Do click through to Vimeo to see it in 720p HD glory—which, unfortunately, cannot be embedded here.