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Wiser for the Time

Time-lapse photography has always been an interest of mine. Time-lapse photography consists of taking numerous still images to create a video clip. Now, you might ask, “Why not just use a video camera?” Well, video camera’s cannot create 30 second, single frame exposures. In the time-lapse video above, it took 1,100 images with each of them having 35 seconds of exposure (the shutter was open for 35 seconds for each image). That means that this video took around 10.5 hours of exposure. Once I had all these images, it was time to make the movie. Normally, movies use around 24 frames per second. This means, the human eye sees 24 frames per second. That’s 24 images per second that you are seeing in my video above; hence why it takes so many images to make up a small video clip.

197 Responses

  1. OMG!! What a wonderful and great work you’ve dome! just Thank you to let me watch
    this amazing video. your working makes everyone so much happy and inspired.
    now on I hope that you are gonna make a success of work like this!!
    Thanks again~~ 🙂

    Reply

  12. First of all, what a beautiful video. I am so glad I ‘stumbled upon’ this link.

    Thank you for making it.

    I have few questions, because I am interested in making similar videos (stop motion, etc)

    1. was there any post production done on those images? if yes, what sort of things?

    2. what was your WB setting on your camera? or was it set on post?

    3. were you using the Nikon D700’s on board time lapsing function? or tethered it to a computer and used a software?

    4. You obviously had it taking photos all night long, how did the battery perform? Did you use a vertical grip to boost battery life? or used a different type of power source?

    thank you so much for your time, if you choose to answer those questions. 🙂

    Reply

  18. Amazing job. I’ve been waiting for a crisp winter night where I am to get a good time lapse of the night sky, but our weather where I am has been somewhat uncooperative.
    Great job though

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  20. It was great to be able to point out the North Star to my wife and son! The first sequence really illustrates how everything “revolves” around it.

    Thanks for posting this wonderful imagery.

    Reply

  24. Wow! seems to be the word most people use to describe your video. Amazing and by watching, I’m really beginning to question my ideas concerning whether or not there is a God. Seems difficult to think there isn’t a Creator who designed this all.

    Reply

  39. Stunningly beautiful; one of the most enjoyable Freshly Presseds that I’ve ever clicked to read.

    Wonderful work.

    One question: aren’t you ever worried your equipment is going to get stolen, left alone in the open overnight? Or are you on a building somewhere?

    Reply

    1. Of course I would! I would never leave equipment unattended in a public area. In this location, I was on a private farm and would check on the camera every 30 minutes. Thank you for commenting and so glad you enjoyed!

      Reply

  43. That is incredible. Words cannot even begin to describe the beauty in the photographs it took to put this video together, as well as the patience! LOL. But look at this amazing masterpiece you’ve created because of it. WOW!!! – that’s about all I can say.

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  44. Thank you for this. As a grandma, I enjoy sharing the wonders of creation with my grandkids. They’re too young to appreciate the stars yet, but they like insects and kitties and puppies.

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  48. Your photography is magnificent! So many clusters of stars in this milky way galaxy just makes one feel like being in a space auditorium. Plus the sunset colors just paints beautifully for the eyes to see. Great photographer! Nature is truly a gift to us.

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  51. I absolutely loved this. I’ve always been amazed by photography, and by space & the night sky. Which explains why I loved it so much. Thanks for posting it.

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  52. My goodness… I am overwhelmed by all of your comments, likes, emails, everything… I just want to thank ALL of you for your kind words and interest in my work. I’m so glad you enjoyed this little one minute video as much as I did. Please feel free to shoot me an email with any questions you might have about the time-lapse. Don’t forget you can follow me on Facebook or fill out a subscription at the top.

    Thank you ALL!

    Reply

  56. This is stunning!

    We live in a big city so we almost never see the stars (we even have special extra-safety extra-bright streetlights that flood the whole neighbourhood in eerie white light) so it’s amazing to see through this film how many stars we’re actually missing out on!

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  59. This is really, really amazing. I never even thought of doing a time lapse with stills, though I guess it makes sense since a video camera would have a hard time catching that much detail.

    I would have thought the playback would have been a bit more “jumpy” with 35 second exposures though.

    Where was this shot, btw?

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  60. I always wanna take a picture of the milky way. But you’ve made thousands of it an even make it into a beautiful video. Wonderful job, great shot!

    Reply

  70. I loved it. It’s amazing, I once did this for my course work and it really did capture the moment right? I saw your flickr too, you’re a great photographer. Keep it up!

    Reply

  79. Amazing – when I look at the Milky Way in your video, it doesn’t feel like it’s rotating around us (like how it typically appears), but that we are rotating around it. One of those ‘wow’ moments that makes us realize how small we are.

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  108. Beautiful! Thanks – brings home our insignificance and the wonder of us hurtling through space!
    Inspiring stuff, just what i needed x

    Reply

    1. That is exactly the sensation I got – for the first time in my experience, I really felt as though WE were moving, and the universe seemed vast and solid in comparison. Thank you for giving me (and many of us) that moment!

      Reply

  123. having done some night sky photography, I can understand your frustration with light pollution. your video is an excellent production in spite of that, so thanks for posting it.

    Reply

  127. Oh my gosh…this is one of the most impressive and beautiful things I have seen in a long time. If you don’t mind, I may re-post this on my blog. I am really in awe of your video…this was very deserving of a FP status…congrats, and happy holidays!

    Reply

  130. *gasp* that took my breath away! The northern lights is one of the things I have been dying to see but lack the good fortune to actually witness it on-site. Thanks for spending all that effort to photograph this and sharing with all of us!

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  134. It’s daunting and refreshing to think that this incredible play of light and shape and color happens over our heads each night while we wheeze peacefully and drool on our pillows. I am wondering why it seems like at first the Milky Way is moving in one direction (ie Earth is spinning in one direction) and then, after a balckout or a lightout, it starts spinning in the other direction? Do you just change the location of the camera? Thank you for sharing this bit of magic!

    Reply

    1. Thank you for your comment, Anya. It’s actually just a rewind of the previous clip. I chose to do this ‘rewind’ with an increase of frame rate to show a replay of the orbit. I guess we could just call it a fancy, confusing special effect. Glad you enjoyed!

      Reply

  138. Excellent work. Tedious to shoot I am sure. I really liked how you used the sunrises to transition to your next shot. It really gets lost just how long you were in the field to shoot all those photos. Any chance you were able to automate your D700 so that you could sleep while it fired away?

    Reply

    1. Thank you for commenting Greg. You are on the right track. I used the MC-36 Multi-Function Remote Cord which acts as an intervalometer. The tricky part that you have to be aware of is the time it takes for the camera to process the image before taking the next one. Also, animals are always interested in devices that makes weird noises. Guard thy camera!

      Reply

    1. Well, if you watched every single frame of 1,100 images at one frame per second, it would take you a long time to get through it. If it were at 8 frames per second, it would look very choppy and would not have a consistent flow to it like watching a movie. This why I chose to put it at 24 frames per second, which is the normal frame rate that you see in movies. Does that make sense?

      Reply

  154. We are the transatlantic diablog. We present trends, topics and trivia from both sides of the Atlantic and really like this blog. Amazing work. Not just this recent post about time-lapse-photography, but also the photo taken at the Joshua Tree National Park in California…

    So why not nominating this (or another) post for our annual blogging award? We can’t do it, because we host the award. If you like to, then this is the link to follow:

    http://transatlanticdiablog.wordpress.com/the-transatlantic-diablog-award-2010/

    You’re welcome…

    Reply

  157. WOW! I’m amazed, and jealous and amazed, and absolutely dumbfounded. That’s just mindblowing how you were able to capture that. I felt so tiny watching it. Awesome. Really awesome.

    Reply

  163. great project -seeing the milky way like this reminds us we should be a bit more humble, there is bigger universe (s?) that we make up sucha small part.
    Well done
    rayharris57.wordpress.com

    Reply

  166. I really enjoyed this work. It’s beautiful.

    Can you explain to me why it looks like the sun is rising during this entire time-lapse? I can’t come up with a likely explanation for myself.

    Thanks

    Reply

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