There are countless time-lapses of the New York City skyline, but filmmaker Joseph DiGiovanna is working on a project unlike others you’ll see: he’s been working on a time-lapse that will hopefully span 30 years.
Photographer Emeric Le Bars is starting a new documentary series about time-lapse photographers and their stories, and he sat down to interview DiGiovanna for the first episode above.
After moving to Weehawken, New Jersey, DiGiovanna became obsessed with his view of the Manhattan skyline from his apartment window.
“I wanted to film everything,” DiGiovanna tells Le Bars. “I wanted to film boats going by. I wanted to film the sunrise and the sunset and the clouds and a storm and a rainbow. And I wanted to film buildings being built and things changing.”
Starting with only sharing sunrises when Instagram had a 15-second video limit, DiGiovanna switched to sharing entire days when Instagram expanded its allowable video length.
The high-quality photos that go into his time-lapses are captured every 30 seconds using a Sony a7S mirrorless camera permanently mounted to the top corner of an apartment window. The camera is tethered to a MacBook Pro that’s always on and receiving photos from the camera.
While much of the process is automated, DiGiovanna is still working on a system that can generate intelligent and beautiful time-lapses on its own.
DiGiovanna is over four years into his project now, and you can follow along with his time-lapses on his Instagram account @nyc_timescape. Here’s an example day:
When NYC was hit by a major blackout in July 2019, DiGiovanna was one of the people who managed to capture a time-lapse of it:
DiGiovanna has already captured over 4 million photos of the NYC skyline thus far, and if everything goes according to current plans, the project will end after 10,958 days in the year 2045.
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Photographer Emeric Le Bars is starting a new documentary series about time-lapse photographers and their stories, and he sat down to interview DiGiovanna for the first episode above.
After moving to Weehawken, New Jersey, DiGiovanna became obsessed with his view of the Manhattan skyline from his apartment window.
“I wanted to film everything,” DiGiovanna tells Le Bars. “I wanted to film boats going by. I wanted to film the sunrise and the sunset and the clouds and a storm and a rainbow. And I wanted to film buildings being built and things changing.”
Starting with only sharing sunrises when Instagram had a 15-second video limit, DiGiovanna switched to sharing entire days when Instagram expanded its allowable video length.
View this post on Instagram
July 4th, 2019 Day 1,450 of 10,958 – #ForMyDad #InLovingMemory #NYC #timelapse #SonyA7s #sony #sunrise #weehawken #blvdeast @sonyalpha #venus #NY #today #ilovenewyork #iloveny #sonyalpha #best_timelapse #herecomesthesun #instavideo #love #bealpha @Instagram #Instagram @best_timelapse #venus #Meditate #meditation June 30th, 2019 Day 1,446 of 10,958 – #ForMyDad #InLovingMemory #NYC #timelapse #SonyA7s #sony #sunrise #weehawken #blvdeast @sonyalpha #venus #NY #today #ilovenewyork #iloveny #sonyalpha #best_timelapse #herecomesthesun #instavideo #love #bealpha @Instagram #Instagram @best_timelapse #venus #Meditate #meditation
A post shared by 30 Year Time-Lapse (@nyc_timescape) on Aug 23, 2019 at 8:55am PDT
The high-quality photos that go into his time-lapses are captured every 30 seconds using a Sony a7S mirrorless camera permanently mounted to the top corner of an apartment window. The camera is tethered to a MacBook Pro that’s always on and receiving photos from the camera.
While much of the process is automated, DiGiovanna is still working on a system that can generate intelligent and beautiful time-lapses on its own.
DiGiovanna is over four years into his project now, and you can follow along with his time-lapses on his Instagram account @nyc_timescape. Here’s an example day:
View this post on Instagram
30 Year TimeLapse June 15th, 2019 Day 1,431 of 10,958 – #ForMyDad #InLovingMemory #NYC #timelapse #SonyA7s #sony #sunrise #weehawken #blvdeast @sonyalpha #venus #NY #today #ilovenewyork #iloveny #sonyalpha #best_timelapse #herecomesthesun #instavideo #love #mercury #bealpha #saturn #instagood @Instagram #Instagram @best_timelapse #venus #Jupiter
A post shared by 30 Year Time-Lapse (@nyc_timescape) on Aug 13, 2019 at 7:37am PDT
When NYC was hit by a major blackout in July 2019, DiGiovanna was one of the people who managed to capture a time-lapse of it:
View this post on Instagram
Watching the lights come on after yesterday’s blackout. It was still very light outside when the blackout started so here is my TimeLapse from sunset until all the buildings had power restored. This is my favorite song by @youthinaromanfield “When The City Goes Quiet” from their album Storm Conductor. @best_timelapse #best_timelapse @sonyalpha #bealpha #sonya7s
A post shared by 30 Year Time-Lapse (@nyc_timescape) on Jul 14, 2019 at 10:45pm PDT
DiGiovanna has already captured over 4 million photos of the NYC skyline thus far, and if everything goes according to current plans, the project will end after 10,958 days in the year 2045.
Continue reading...