Time-lapse
photography is something that has always amazed me and most people
who see it are captivated. My fascination began when I came across
the work of Ron Fricke and his film Chronos back in 1985, an amazing
work. Another one of my favourites is Koyaanisqatsi
(1982), if you would like to go on an amazing visual journey I
recommend viewing all his movies.
The wonderful imagery in these films are the drawing card
but after some retrospection you have to appreciate how much work
went into them and begin to develop an admiration for that also. This
is especially true when you consider Fricke's team shot on 70 mm film
and carried massive amounts of equipment to the most remote places on
earth. Not to mention time-lapse photography has to be one of the most time consuming activities you can get involved with. It can take hours or days to get a few seconds of video.
For
me, my first time-lapse video was made close to home, in and around my
home town of St John's Newfoundland. “Time Passages at Canada's Far
East” is a 2 1/2 minute video comprised of approximately 3,000
still images, a process I began 18 months ago. I learned a lot about
photography, time-lapse and video in that time.
Perhaps
the main reason I love time-lapse photography is that it teaches us
to have a greater appreciation of the world around us because we see it
through a different lens: in a chronological time-frame unnatural to
us. As Ron Fricke said it reveals “humanity's
relationship to the eternal”.
It does give us a unique window through which to view our world. Hope
you enjoy the video.
