John Nash Ott

Biography

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. 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…