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If there’s one thing people on the Internet love almost as much as videos of kittens, it’s timelapse videos.
Personally, timelapse has been a fascination of mine since seeing Baraka as a kid. (I've no idea why my parents thought it was a good idea to drag a kid to a 96 minute movie with no actual dialogue, but it still remains one of the most breath-taking, amazing and haunting films I've ever seen.)
A good timelapse sequence reveals the world as we've not seen it before. Compressing the dimension of time can turn clouds in to rivers or show cities as pulsing, breathing organisms.
So, without further ado, here are some of the best. Please do go to fullscreen and HD, particularly for the Vimeo videos.
Raw Lightscapes
Enrique Pacheco has produce a number of timelapse films based in Iceland, and this is the most recent, awe-inspiring piece. He's also produced a short film contrasting the ice and fire of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier and volcano. If you can find a spare eight minutes, it's amazing viewing.
TimeScapes: Rapture
Tom Lowe is a master of the timelapse. Using a somewhat DIY assortment of gear, including cameras, cranes, and home made dollies, Tom has been producing astonishing timelapses for the past few years. More recently, he's begun work on a feature film, the trailer of which is the video above. Can't wait.
The Unseen Sea
Slow down fog and clouds, and they begin to look rather more liquid. Keep an eye out for the giant cranes on the Oakland side of the San Francisco bay. They bear an uncanny resemblance to the AT-AT walkers from Star Wars, and were erroneously attributed as the inspiration for the AT-AT design.
Timelapse: The City Limits
Another view of the city-scape, moving from the city centre to outskirts, to the bush.
Time lapse sky shows Earth rotating instead of stars
This one suggested by avid reader Joel Werner, this timelapse of the stars gives you the impression of the earth moving through space, rather than the stars revolving around us.
Acorn to Oak
I vaguely remembered some amazing timelapses from David Attenborough's Private Life of Plants back in the 90s. However when I went looking online, I couldn't find much. I did however find this video of an acorn growing into an Oak tree. It's like, a metaphor or something, man.
The Private Life of Plants: Fungi
Aha! I did find something from the Private Life of Plants. But it turned out to be fungi, not plants. Brilliant insight into the growth of a strange organism. Also, cue juvenile laughter around 30 seconds in - that's probably Phallus impudicus or a close relative thereof. I'm sure you can guess how it got its name.
The Arctic Light
Yes I know, it's another amazing arctic timelapse. Must be a trend or something. This one filmed by Norwegian filmmaker TSOphotography. He has a bunch of other videos worth checking out on his Vimeo page, too.
That's all the videos I've got for the moment. Did I miss any stand-outs? Let me know in the comments.
