Time Travels: Charles River Sunset

Light fades on a world-class skyline

By Edward A. Brown

The time-lapse above shows the sun setting over the Charles River and the Boston skyline on a pleasant summer evening. The camera was strapped near the train tracks below the BU Bridge, hence an occasional shudder in the frame. Shooting began at 5:45 p.m., with a shot interval of 10 seconds. The last frame was shot at 11:30 p.m. The video was then encoded at 50 frames per second.  

The technique of time-lapse photography has been around for years, but never seems to get old. This year, with the help of mechanical engineering student and photography enthusiast Peter Moriarty (ENG’11), BU Today is bringing you familiar sights in a way you’ve never seen them before.

The key to successful time-lapse photography is to determine how to manipulate time to produce the most interesting images. The photographer must set two key variables. First, how often do you want the camera to record an image? Second, once you’ve gathered images, how quickly do you want to play them?

Got an idea for a time-lapse on or around campus? Share it with us. Think large or small, indoors or out. If we follow through in our weekly series, you’ll get credit, but even better, we’ll all get a great new set of images and a deeper appreciation of where we stand, and live.

Edward A. Brown can be reached at ebrown@bu.edu.

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