John Ott
| John Nash Ott | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 23, 1909 |
| Died | April 6, 2000 (aged 90) |
| Residence | Sarasota, FL |
| Occupation |
Photographer Cinematographer Medical research Inventor Optics |
| Known for |
Time-lapse photography Light therapy Full-spectrum light Founder of OttLite |
| Website | OttLite Technology |
Dr. John Nash Ott (October 23, 1909 – April 12, 2000) was a photographer and cinematographer who developed many modern photographic practices, including time-lapse photography and full-spectrum lighting.
He began his career as a banker, but he soon became interested in photography. His interest in time-lapse photography led to a well-known career in cinematography and, as a result, he performed important research about the effects of natural lighting on plants, animals and humans.
Initially, Ott's interest in time-lapse movie photography, mostly of plants, was just a hobby. Starting in the 1930s, Ott bought and built more and more time-lapse equipment, eventually building a large greenhouse full of plants, cameras, and even self-built automated electric moving camera systems (the first movie camera motion control systems ever built) for moving the cameras to follow the growth of plants as they developed. He even time-lapsed his entire greenhouse of plants and cameras as they all worked, a virtual symphony of time-lapse movement. His work was featured on an episode of the second incarnation of the request TV show, You Asked For It, in the late 1950s.
Ott also discovered that movement of plants could be manipulated by varying the amount of water that plants were given, and varying the color temperature of the lights in the studio, with some colors causing the plants to flower and other colors causing the plants to bear fruit. Ott even discovered ways to change the gender of plants merely by varying the light source color-temperature.
By using such techniques, Ott time-lapse animated plants "dancing" up and down in sync to prerecorded music tracks. The film, completed in the 1950s, was titled Dancing Flowers.
His cinematography of flowers blooming in such classic documentaries as Walt Disney's Secrets of Life (1956) pioneered the modern use of time-lapse on film and television. Ott wrote a book on the history of his time-lapse adventures, My Ivory Cellar (1958).
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