How to Do Time Lapse Photography If You're Not a Photography Pro
Photo via Slate
When Slate magazine staffer Justin Peters took a laptop selfie of himself everyday for five years, he hoped to record subtle, interesting changes or maybe uncover some deep insight about personal growth or the passing of time.
It didn’t happen.
"Five years and 1,300 photos later, the results are in. As you’ll see, my life is very boring," he admits in his essay about his project.
"It’s hard to notice time passing, even when you’re watching time pass," he writes. "There’s no dramatic aging. You live your life. Most days are pretty much the same. You forget most things you’ve done. Then it’s over."
Watch for yourself and you’ll agree this one should be filed under #timelapsefail.
Peters was inspired by the artist Dumo, who took a photo of his face everyday for eight years , Peters hoped his commitment and diligence would pay off in equally dramatic ways, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Certainly Peters did not accomplish the drama of Christopher Rehage's time lapse selfie project, The Longest Way, documenting his year long walk through China.
Photo via Vimeo/ Christopher Rehage
Nor did he capture the wondrous beauty of the Brown sisters, captured by photographer Nicholas Nixon as they aged over 40 years. This series is so compelling it is currently on exhibit at the MOMA.
Photo via Nicholas Nixon/ MOMA
Perhaps it is the striking Portrait of Lotte by photographer Frans Hofmeester that achieves what Peters had hoped for.
"I filmed my daughter every week, from birth up until she turned 12 years old then made this time lapse edit in FCP. The music and tune is made by myself with GarageBand samples."
We see Lotte from birth on up as she morphs before our very eyes into girlhood and the result is anything but subtle. The dramatic visual and poetic payoff is profound, as we watch this tiny being grow into her humanity.
Photo via Frans Hofmeester
In a TED talk given by marketing and brand strategist Stephen Addis, he shares his 15 “most treasured photos.” Once a year he headed to the same corner on 57 Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, handed his camera to a total stranger and asked them to snap a photo of him holding his daughter in his arms. What started out as a one-time photo became a yearly tradition for 15 years.
“These photos are far more than proxies for a single moment or even a specific trip,” Addis says. “They are also ways for us to freeze time for one week in October and reflect on time and how we change from year to year—and not just physically, but in every way. Because while we take the same photo, our perspectives change.”
Addis wants to enlighten us to taking “an active role in consciously creating memories” by documenting the power of “metamorphosis through photographs.”
While on the subject of TED talks, check out the TED Blog post on what makes a killer time lapse with Joe Capra.
Photos via Stephen Addis/TED Blog
You don’t have to be an expert photographer or wait 15 years for the payoff of a interesting time-lapse project. There are more immediate ways to capture the passing the time. Here are a few ways to try a time-lapse photography project of your own. Maybe you too can learn something about yourself, your subject and quite beautifully, the world around you.
Pregnancy offers the most dramatic charting of growth, literally, over the course of a mere nine months.
Photos via Webneel
Even something as simple as taking a photo of the same tree over the course of a year has breadth and beauty. Find an interesting way to turn the drastic differences into a photo illustration or collage.
Photo via Webnee
If your child is young enough, staging a mother-daughter photo in an interesting way (below) will have dramatic pay-off in just a few years. Or, just take the same photo every day for year and watch how your child grows.
Photo via Chic Cheap Nursery
Of course there are cameras, gear, apps, Flickr groups, and a Facebook group to build focus into your budding time lapse photo game. The Flow-Mowis a device that adds motion to your time lapse videos. Flow-Mow works with smartphones, but also supports cameras.
If you want to take things up a level, this chart of time lapse gear basics clearly points you in the right direction. You can head over to Digital Photography School for more explicit details and how-to’s.
Photo via Digital Photography School
If you just want to keep things simple, explore some of the exciting apps for your smartphone and create time lapse images in a single moment. Head over to the iTunes store and see what’s cooking in the time lapse app department for a cheap and easy way to get started.
Below are some of our favorite, time-lapse inspirations. Enjoy!
Time Lapse Fire Fly Video by Vincent Brady
Photo via Vincent Brady/ Video
Photo via From Up North via Serial Thriller/Distrotten
Skyline photography and videos of Dan Marker-Moore. His loops on Vine are awesome too!
Photo via Design Taxi/ Dan Marker-Moore
The Milky Weigh in South Dakota series by Randy Halverson is galactially breathtaking and may inspire a series of night shoots!
Photo via Vimeo/ Randy Halverson
This Lunar Eclipse by Chad Trettin doesn’t disappoint.
Photo via Webneel/Chad Trettin
The stunning time lapse photography of Kang Seon Jun is breathtaking. The alchemy of time, space and movement is pure poetry.
Photo via Nez Art Design/ Kang Seon Jun
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