The New York Skyline is probably one of the most fluid in the world. Its outline is ever-changing with new buildings going up and old ones being replaced on a regular basis. Photographer and filmmaker Joe DiGiovanna spotted this from the window of his apartment in Weehawken, New Jersey, and decided that he wanted to capture it in timelapse.
French fellow timelapse photographer Emeric Le Bars went to meet with Joe to interview him about the project. Joe told Emeric that the project was born from a love of the city and the incredible view he had from his apartment. His mission is to film and post the sunrise over NYC every day for at least 30 years.
Emeric says that the project is dedicated to the memory of his father, who loved to watch the sunset over the New York City skyline. It’s been going since 2015, so Joe still has about 26 years to go. But in just the four years he’s been doing it so far, he’s noticed the NYC skyline change quite a lot, with at least 16 new buildings sprouting up in that time.
Joe’s Sony A7S camera is mounted flush to the window and surrounded by a skirt to prevent any reflections from the inside of the glass. Originally it was fired automatically by Capture One, but now it’s controlled by a custom Arduino-based intervalometer Joe coded to offer more precision and reliability.
It’s basically just been left up there now for about five years. Even though the project has been going for four years, it took him about a year to get everything set up and running reliably. The Sony A7S was chosen because it allows him to keep shooting timelapse basically forever with no moving parts to worry about.
Not all of Joe’s videos are just straight timelapses of each day. He’s also put together compilations. This one covers from 5am-9pm from May 1st to 31st 2019.
And having a camera set up shooting an image every 30 seconds no matter what has allowed Joe to shoot some pretty cool scenes of the New York City skyline that he would not have otherwise been able to easily capture. Such as this one, from just a few days ago…
It’s an interesting project, with some great results, and listening to Joe talk about it, you can tell that it’s something he’s passionate about. The Arduino-based intervalometer also made me smile as it’s something I’ve done a bunch over the years.
If you want to see more of Joe’s project, head on over to the NYC Timescape Instagram.
[via Digital Trends]
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