There’s no other way to put this: Toronto Standard loves time-lapse photography. Of special interest to us are the hi-def videos captured from our city’s rooftops that offer a fresh, breath-taking perspective of the city. For a while, Toronto Tempo by Ryan Emond was the gold standard of Toronto time-lapse videos, though it was recently supplanted by Tom Ryaboi’s City Rising. But Emond re-ascends to the throne as TO’s top time-lapser with his latest offering Planet Toronto. (It seems that Ryaboi and Emond are engaged in a friendly rivalry. Some sources even suggest that the two may work together.)

Created with the backing of Tourism Toronto, Planet Toronto shows off the same sweeping skyline shots we’ve become accustomed to in these videos, but adds some new innovative techniques that, with my less than sophisticated understanding of cinematography, I will describe as “swoopy zooms.” Combine these digitally rendered crane shots with some backwards footage of leaves and rain falling upwards at ground level and you’ve got a very slick new video that shows off Toronto’s better looking side. On his Vimeo page, Emond writes, “By utilizing time-lapse photography and slow motion to capture intimate moments, I was able to draw attention to what we might overlook, or only offer a passing glance to. I want to represent how we move through the city; how the weather moves through it and how the city breathes, transforms and grows each day.”

But what do you think? Does Planet Toronto surpass Toronto Tempo and City Rising? Will we ever get tired of time-lapse photography? Share your thoughts in the comments.

At the very least, Len now has some new footage to use in their next video.

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Michael Kolberg is The Sprawl Editor at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter for jokes @mikeykolberg

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