News Time-Lapse Trends: Day to Night – Part I
“Time-Lapse Trends” is a video blog series which draws attention to some of the many exciting trends in time-lapse production. We feature a new trend in each instalment, to demonstrate the scope of the medium and the various ways in which it is applied, ranging from the popular to the more obscure.
Perhaps one of the most popular trends in the world of time-lapse is tracking periods of day or night – or day to night. In this special three-part instalment of this feature, we include examples of how photographers have explored these themes, beginning with day-time time-lapse.
Weather can be visually stunning in all its forms; rain or shine, watching different forms of weather unfold through time-lapse can be pretty dramatic.
With ample amounts of light, day-time can be the perfect time to capture various weather forms.
‘A Windy Day on the Windfarm‘ by Alan Dyer is a great example. Although the subject of capture is a pretty blustery day on a windfarm in southern Alberta, Canada, the accompanying music adds an element of calm to this video. The setting is ideal for a quintessential day-time time-lapse, boasting miles of green grass, bright blue skies, and fluffy clouds.
Of course, wind means lots of cloudscapes, which make for excellent movements to watch unfold through time-lapse. The different clips in this sequence were captured using both fixed- and motion-control cameras, offering different ways of rendering the motion of the wind turbines.
Dayscapes are also a trendy application of time-lapse, generally used to capture the movements and happenings in a particular place during daylight hours.
Rich Parry’s compilation of ‘dayscapes’ mixes up impressive time-lapse, slow motion, and real-time video, captured on location across California.
As with every mode of photographic capture, time-lapse can be used as a form of visual documentation. Parry utilises time-lapse and other techniques to isolate certain details such as wildlife, water, sky, and plant life, in order to create a sort of ‘day in the life’ rendering in these different settings.
In isolating details, it is easier to comprehend that a lot can happen in just one day.
How about building a house, for example? As we have already covered, time-lapse is a useful tool for capturing – and preserving – the progress of construction projects. This video from Andreas*D shows a house constructed from the ground up over the course of just one day.
That’s about 12 hours (resulting in about 3,700 images) that can be shown in just 2 and a half minutes with time-lapse. The sun going down behind the construction scene makes a nice visual marker to end the narrative.