The Wonder of Time Lapse Videos Reveals Insights and History

Time lapse videography allows us to see details in the passage of time that go unnoticed to our eyes.  These fleeting moments are almost imperceptible as we go about our daily lives, until we compress this time so that we can see motion, action, and trends in a sequence of individual frames of information. This collection of images can include thousands of frames of information, and when brought together and edited to music and entirely new world of information is presented to our eyes and ears.

I was always captivated with time lapse photography of clouds and plants, but wanted to transfer this concept to the construction of buildings.  These events can occur over many months and years. Using time lapse photography reveals the stages of demolition, site development, construction, and site completion. Tiny details emerge as the interplay of light, weather, and construction are captured. In addition, you are able to document a piece of construction history that would otherwise be lost, or otherwise potentially captured only in a few still images.

Centennial Hall Construction-

http://goo.gl/Ud4r2I

At the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, I took the concept of capturing images through traditional video cameras, and later web cameras and recording individual video frames to a server. Later, thousands of still images would be collected and compiled with digital editing software to create short video segments. This may include 3 frames a day. For some segments, individual frames were purposely deleted to avoid stroboscopic issues with bright and dark images, depending upon the weather, season, and lighting for specific days. Later, music would be chosen to accentuate the emotional feel of the edited piece.

Showing these videos to various audiences, always seems to illicit a sense of wonder and amazement. It is a way to capture those fleeting moments we miss in our lives, and also persevere a sense of history in the process.

Stadium Site Preparation-
http://goo.gl/5xVFIf

Reuter Hall Construction-http://goo.gl/WSDpjm