Time-lapse photography has amplified in popularity. We’re beginning to notice a trend for business to use time-lapse photography for purposes that extend beyond marketing and deliver strategic advantage.

I’ve previously written about the creative aspect of time lapse and the technological capabilities allowing the human eye to witness  previously unseen action, like the motion of a falling snowflake or evaporation of salt water.

But recently I’ve been looking into how industries distanced from entertainment or media can be brought to the forefront through creative production values. There’s been an increased curiosity surrounding the ability of bringing construction and resources industries to life through time-lapse technology.

Bring in the experts

A local Perth web and internet company called Ripple Vision have created a time-lapse system designed for construction projects, science, research or marketing promotions. They offer high-resolution professional equipment that is deployed wirelessly. It can also be located in harsh or remote environments, since it is pressurised with weatherproof casing and can be solar powered.

Some of their current work involves documenting multi-year construction projects in Perth, assisting their clients from start to finish in project management and marketing. Through this technology the activities of a month can be condensed down to minutes.

What’s all the fuss about?

This does not sound as glamorous as the metamorphosis of a butterfly, but still fascinating in that we’re offered an opportunity to witness the growth of infrastructure in our home environment. The phrase ‘watching paint dry’ is obsolete when it comes to time-lapse. Watching a long, slow, usually dull process can now be condensed into an engaging, educational and actually quite exciting production.

The work of the FIFOs is another world to many people who have not set foot in the remote regions of the Pilbara and beyond. With the capabilities in time lapse, these long-term mining projects are now visually accessible to everyone. We’re seeing an intensified number of time-lapse videos shared online and being used as an effective method of engagement.

How does it work?

At Ripple Vision, the time-lapse sequences are automatically uploaded to the cloud for backup. They’ve customized the user experience by building an individual portal, which is user friendly and accessible. The customer is fed monthly progress videos, but can also access their portal anytime to watch the action.

Benefits of high quality time lapse

The content produced by this technology is very high quality, meaning it can be used for marketing purposes. This could be to inform and educate staff and stakeholders on the progress of a project, or impress and entice a potential investor.

It’s not just the professionals getting in on the action. We already know that everybody is capable of being their own content publisher. We can publish on LinkedIn, edit our own photos through apps, and now with iOS8 we can also produce time-lapse videos ourselves, although not to the same quality of course.

Examples of time lapse

Here’s an example of how Lush Digital have incorporated time lapse into a promotional video for WA Ballet:

Behind the Scenes of ‘Radio & Juliet’ by WA Ballet.

Here are some examples of time-lapse videos that have received a lot of attention on the web:

Macro Timelapse from Daniel Csobot

Adventure Is Calling from Shane Black

Dubai Timelapse from dimid

If you’re interested in incorporating time-lapse into your content or as a method of project management, feel free to get in touch to see how we can help.

Lucy Helliwell