The principle of time-lapse photography is a simple one: a series of photographs are taken and used in sequence to make a moving-image film, but since each frame is taken with a lapse in time between each shot, when played back at normal speed the action appears to be speed up. Usually, film is shot at 24 frames per second and played back at the same rate, but if a gap of several seconds, minutes or even hours separates each frame then amazing footage can be captured. Majestic events in nature, the behavior of human beings and cities, the life cycles of other species, weather cycles and the movements of the cosmos can be captured in a time-scale that is usually imperceptible to our senses. This post brings together 25 awesome examples of time-lapse photography, sequences that show the range and potential of this stunning field of film making.

1. Coachella 2010 by Sam O’Hare

Sam O’Hare’s brilliant time-lapse film records 2010 Coachella festival in California. The time-lapse photography is combined with tilt-shift focus techniques to create the ‘miniature’ feel of the scenes. The film shows the festival energetically building to night-time performances and then unwinding again in the daylight of morning.

2. Nature Time Lapse One by Mockmoon2000

Mockmoon2000 is a Japanese artist with an awesome portfolio of time-lapse creations. This film is a compilation of some highlights of natural time-lapse projects from recent years including beautiful landscapes, night skies and sublime cityscapes.

3. Mushroom time lapse Amanita Muscaria by Michel Gingras

Time-lapse photography is the perfect technique for capturing events and movements in the natural world that occur over a timescale too slow for human perception to follow. In this film we see the life cycle of a fruiting body of Amanita muscaria, more commonly known as the fly agaric, a poisonous and psychoactive mushroom.

4. The Alps Part I by Michael Rissi

Timelapse movie: The Alps — part I from Michael Rissi on Vimeo.

This film by Michael Rissi, the first in a series of four, captures the majesty and power of Alpine mountains and the weather that surrounds them. Rissi hiked to the locations and shot using a Canon EOS 50D, taking images at intervals of two to seven seconds to create the time-lapse effect.

5. Typhoon Nangka over Hong Kong by Tokyoahead

This stunning time-lapse film shows typhoon ‘Nangka’ making landfall at Hong Kong on June 26th 2009, capturing a succession of massive rain fronts battering the city. The gaps between each storm front see periods of sunny daylight, while the film ends with Victoria Harbour illuminated and apparently calm in the evening.

6. Milky Way over Idaho by Dan Heller

Dan Heller photographed the wonderful starry skies over Red Horse Mountain Ranch in Harrison, Idaho, taken over successive nights in August 2009. The images were edited together in iMovie to create the sequence, in which we see stellar constellations and the Milky Way passing over the trees and cabins, and a thunderstorm in the middle of the film. Heller used a Canon EOS 1DsMark3 and an EOS 5DMark2 with 16-40mm lens and 15mm fisheye.

7. Manhattanhenge by Rocketboom

Manhattanhenge (Time Lapse) from Rocketboom on Vimeo.

Twice every year the east-west streets of Manhattan’s street grid are aligned exactly with the setting sun. The phenomenon is called the Manhattan Solstice or ‘Manhattanhenge’, named after Stonehenge’s sun-aligned stone formations. This time-lapse film shows the sun casting orange light on the buildings of Manhattan during the event, and ends with the city lights coming on after sunset.

8. Flowers in Growth by Luka van den Driesschen

Time-lapse photography reveals the dynamic movements of flowers, as we see in this compilation of sequences by Luka van den Driesschen. The petals of the blossoms move and open in a cycle through the day to attract insects for pollination, providing us with a dance-like display.

9. Miniature City by Mockmoon2000

This is another exquisite film by time-lapse expert Mockmoon2000, this time combining tilt-shift techniques to capture Tokyo as a city in miniature. As the camera pulls away from the action we see urban life speeded-up and apparently scaled down, a brilliant piece of time-lapse filmmaking.

10. Winter Solstice – Total Lunar Eclipse 2010 by Kareem Brown

The Winter Solstice on December 21st 2010 treated much of the world to a total lunar eclipse, as our planet blocked the sun’s light, casting a shadow over the whole of the moon. Kareem Brown’s time-lapse film shows the eclipse, with four-and-a-half hours of time reduced to a minute-and-a-half sequence. At the moment of totality the moon appears to turn to coloured an iron red, as the only light reaching the satellite is the red part of the spectrum refracted through the Earth’s atmosphere.

11. Sydney New Year’s Eve 2010 by The City of Sydney

This cool promotional video shows the 2010 New Year’s celebrations in Sydney Harbour, all recorded in stunning time-lapse. The film shows the build-up in the early evening, with illuminated boats manoeuvring under the harbour’s famous bridge, the spectacular fireworks at midnight and the party continuing until a peaceful dawn on New Year’s Day.

12. ALMA Antenna by Jose Francisco Salgado

The ALMA Array Operations Site is an observatory situated 5000 meters above sea level on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile. This awesome time-lapse film records an entire night at the observatory, with three of the facility’s antennae moving in precise synchronization as they look into the depths of the cosmos. The moon sets at the start of the night, the Milky Way then rotates through the sky before the sun rises at the end of the sequence.

13. South Pole Lunar Time-Lapse by Glen Kinoshita

Glen Kinoshita shot this time-lapse film at the Admunsen-Scott Station, an American scientific research station at the South Pole in Antarctica. Filmed over the course of one night, we see the moon passing through the sky and a colourful display of the southern lights, the Aurora Australis.

14. Reno Balloon Race 2006 by Mike Posehn

Mike Posehn used a Canon S3 and a Canon Pro1to create this fantastic time-lapse film of the 2006 Reno Balloon Race. The sequences shows the action as a total of 106 balloons take to the air and perform a surreal bouncing dance in the sky’s thermals and winds.

15. Eyjafjallajökull Volcano Eruption by Sean Stiegemeier

Sean Stiegemeier’s fantastic time-lapse film shows a massive release of natural power as the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted in May 2010. The film shows the huge plumes of ash that were ejected into the sky, clouds which severely disrupted air travel in Europe, and we also see the bleakness and beauty of the Icelandic landscape.

16. The Crevasse – Making of 3D Street Art by Edgar Müller

This splendid film records the creation of a large-scale piece of street art, which Edgar Müller produced for the 2008 Festival of World Culture at Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. The artist used extremely foreshortened perspective to create the illusion of depth in his painting of an icy crevasse.

17. Golden Gate, Miniaturized by Andrew Curtis

Golden Gate, Miniaturized from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.

Andrew Curtis added tilt-shift effects to his sequence of photographs of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to give the film its miniaturized aesthetic. The panning shot in the middle of the film is especially fine in its execution.

18. Olas en el Mar de Nubes (Waves in the Sea of Clouds) by Fernando Bullon

This amazing film by Fernando Bullon reveals the surface of a ‘sea’ of clouds, rippling in wave patterns and washing over the cliff edges of mountains in the Caldera de Taburiente National Park on La Palma in the Canary Islands. Once again, time-lapse photography is able to reveal natural patterns and dynamics that are on scale normally beyond our perception.

19. Shape of Things to Come by 599 Productions

Timelapse Part 6 – Shape of Things to Come from 599 Productions on Vimeo.

Taking its title from a sci-fi classic of the 1930s, Shape of Things to Come shows the beauty of the Californian landscape, both manmade and natural. The wonderful scenery was captured on a Canon 5D Mark 2 with Canon and Zeiss ZF lenses, an d then stitched together to form this mesmerising film.

20. Time Lapse by 599 Productions

Another magnificent time-lapse sequence presented by 599 Productions, this time showing cityscapes with bright lights and traffic streaming under dramatic skies.

21. Geisha by 2:12

Texan artist 2:12 reveals the creative process that goes into this artwork, as multiple layers of different media are applied, distressed and re-applied. The final image itself is beautiful, but the evolution of the painting seen in the photographic sequence is equally fascinating.

22. Butterfly Lifecycle by Tess

The life cycle of the butterfly is one of the wonders of the natural world, as the caterpillar transforms into a hanging chrysalis, with the beautiful winged butterfly emerging after pupation. This fascinating sequence shows the process from caterpillar to Monarch butterfly. The species have distinctive orange and black patterned wings, which in this film can be seen filling with stomach juices after the adult insect emerges.

23. Northern Lights by Witek Kaszkin

The Polish Polar Station in Hornsund fjord, on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen carries out a range of scientific research. Its arctic location makes it the perfect place to view the aurora borealis, the northern lights, as we see in this film shot at the station by Polish photographer Witek Kaszkin.

24. Fort Cobb, Oklahoma Supercell by Kevin McGrath

This astonishing time-lapse film shows the truly awesome power of a storm’s supercell, recorded by storm chaser Kevin McGrath as it passed over Fort Cobb in Oklahoma. While the massive, churning clouds didn’t form in to the classic tornado funnel, it did dump masses of water and grapefruit-sized hailstones onto the town.

25. Rapture by Tom Lowe

Finally, this is a collection of totally breathtaking time-lapse sequences (with some real-time clips) by photographer Tom Lowe. The images seen include test footage for Lowe’s film ‘TimeScapes: a Modern Portrait of the American Southwest’, in which he demonstrates his mastery and experimentation in the field of awesome time-lapse photography.

James Adams blogs and is a product analyst on Cartridge Save, providing the best ink cartridges.