In the blink of an eye.

One of the "just for fun" services I provide my customers (those who are interested) is a time lapse video of their house being constructed. I need to be able to get in on the ground floor when the land is just being graded for this to happen. I have experimented with a couple of different camera's and different settings for picture taking.

The first step is to find a decent time lapse camera. I have several on a job and I used the Brinno TLC100 camera. It's great in that it is waterproof and you can set the frequency of the shots. The negative aspect of this camera is that the battery life has been less than optimal, and that moisture accumulates on the lense and remains there until the sun evaporates the moisture. Otherwise, it takes a good picture and the pictures are stored as an avi file on a flash drive, truly plug and play technology. The camera is about $125 and comes with it's own flash drive. I purchased Duracell lithium batteries hoping for longevity of the recording process.

On a recent job, I tried a new camera. A little less expensive was the Wingscapes Timelapse Cam 8.0. The negative aspect of this camera is that it stores the photographs on the camera's internal memory on an SD card. So, you'll have to download the raw photographs to your computer first. The advantages to this camera is that the battery life appears to be very long, and you have the capability of editing out unwanted photographs when preparing the overall video.

 

Next, you need to find the ideal location to put the camera. Ideally, it will be high off the ground and in a place where it will not be blocked by equipment or construction for the duration of the project.

On the Hammond job, I found the basketball hoop as the perfect location. I called the builder to make certain that the hoop would remain for the duration of the project and was assured that it definitely would not be taken down until after the house was completed.

This is the point where I need to make clear that The Window Gal does NOT (I repeat, does NOT) do heights. It's not that she is chicken, she actually comes by this quite honestly through her father, who also does NOT (I repeat, does NOT) do heights. It's a family thing, you understand. On this particular day that we placed this camera, it took about an hour and a half to select the location, approve with the builder of the location, get up the nerve to ascend the location and then actually place the camera in this location. It was over labor day of 2012.



 

 

This looks like it was a breeze, trust me when I tell you, that for The Window Gal, this was an experience of overcoming a major phobia (one involving heights).  I am proud of this accomplishment.

This camera allowed me to edit out those photos that were too foggy (due to early morning condensation) or where there were multiple days where nothing occurred. 


Judy Hammonds time lapse

The video is fairly primitive and I have learned a lot.  The basketball hoop location lasted an entire week.  The builder moved the camera to a new location (much lower than the hoop) and we still managed to get a fairly interesting video.

I have a couple of very large projects that have been recording for over a year.  I'll be anxious to see how those turn out as well.