Intervalography - Photographic Mapping
Intervalography takes patience, but the results are stunning. It is a process of photographically mapping cities, nature, and any other field of vision. The image below is the result of Alan Grinberg’s intervalography.
A photographic mapping of San Francisco using intervalography. Courtesy of agrinberg
To the uninitiated eye this image looks like “computer art”. I would like to stress that this “photo” is documentation of a real city, in real time, and real light. There was no Photoshop processing. The only thing constructed about it is the arrangement of 122 separate exposures in the frame. -Alan Grinberg
The following two photographs are the first and last images used in the resulting image above. Between these two, the photographer set the exposure for once a minute over 2 hours. This resulted in 122 images, from which he took a 17 pixel tall strip at the same location in each image.
This is the first image taken in the series at 4:48pm. Courtesy of agrinberg.
This is the last image taken in the series at 6:49pm. Courtesy of agrinberg.
The image changes quite drastically when you extract a vertical strip, as seen below, rather than a horizontal strip, as seen in the first image.
Intervalography using vertical strips. Courtesy of agrinberg.
This next image illustrates the size of strip relative to the size of the original photographs. Again, this strip is taken from the same exact location in each successive photograph.
One of 122 images from which a 17 pixel strip is extracted. Courtesy of agrinberg.
The next photograph marks the location, of the strip highlighted above, with brackets. The appearance of clouds across a sky is actually a mapping of these clouds across a single point.
The horizon maintains a straight line even with intervalography. Courtesy of agrinberg.
The horizon and sunset mapped with intervalography. Courtesy of agrinberg.
It is quite obvious the image above is the horizon at sunset. The image below, however, is a mapping of breaking waves over a 2 hour period. The horizon is dead flat, but the wave in the foreground oscillates between the crest and the break as each photo is taken.
Breaking waves as portrayed through intervalography. Courtesy of agrinberg.
These images are of particular interest to me because they combine two interests of mine - mapping and patterns. The mapping aspect has been illustrated throughout the post, but the patterning aspect may not have been as obvious. Visually, of course, each image has a strong series of lines because of the method of combining strips. Methodically though, each strip is from the same position in the original photographs. Therefore, the pattern is a simple repetition of the same element, with variation a result of different content. The content, however, is roughly the same creating some semblance of pattern through color.
My personal preference happens to be for the first image. I think the fact that it captures the subject before and after sunset adds another dimension to the photograph. There is some level of order from the rough datums in the image, but the coloration is very complex. Although, it’s hard not to appreciate the image of clouds because they appear to be a panorama, but illustrate movement across a fixed location.
A true reinterpretation of time lapse photography.
Intervalography photo set by Alan Grinberg.
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Is there existing software to process those hundreds of photos for intervalography? It seems to me it should be fairly simple in terms of scripting or even making an automated action in common software like photoshop to do that. Of course, one would have to have the appropriate equipment to do the timed exposures in the first place.
Other than that, how about having more exposures at shorter periods of time to increase the “resolution”? 2 pixel strips?
Or even dispensing with the “interval” part and taking photos around a single object (or from a single point of view of a rotating object) and seeing what results? (of course, then it wouldn’t really have much to do with urbanism)