The Ladybug
Back in 1982 I did a summer internship at Oxford Scientific Films in England. That summer I shot my first time lapse. I found a ladybug larva that was in the process of fastening itself to a nettle stem in order to pupate. The nettle plant had already been potted up and was waiting in the studio for one of the larvae I had collected to choose it for its transformation.
The Time Lapse
Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly a beetle larva turns into a beetle. I had never thought much about the process so I soon realized I needed to obtain some crucial information. How long would it take? What were the stages along the way? After chatting through the likely scenario with a couple people I got a quick run-through of the Bolex 16mm camera I was to use for the time lapse. A simple intervalometer controlled the time between frames with the turn of a knob. I set up a flash to furnish the light for each frame and calculated the exposure and set the f-stop of the lens accordingly. Now the fun begins. The beginning of the process and the end of the process happen much more quickly than the middle bit which takes several days. Therefore, I needed to turn my little dial on the intervalometer as the rates of the action changed. The first part where the larva pumps itself up to split its skin and push it down to the base where it fastened itself to the plant wasn’t too bad because I could sit right there and watch it happen. I turned the dial so that it took frames just a few seconds apart. After a little while it finished up pushing back its skin. As it finished I gradually, over the course of an hour or so, turned the dial so that it took a frame every hour instead of every few seconds. Now it was ready for the next few days while the under the pupal case the mass of ooze gradually turned into a shiny lady bug. The set up was very near to path I walked back and forth throughout the day. Every time I went by I examined the pupa closely for changes. Finally, a few days later, I noticed a split in the case and some movement. The next hour or so brought home the power and magic time lapse is capable of. Turning the little dial to shorten the time between frames, I watched as the glossy, pale little beetle crawled out of its pupal case and then settled on top of it. It proceeded to pump its wings full of fluid to expand them to their full and final size. After this things began to slow down and it was time to go home for the day. I guessed the final changes might take several hours so I changed the interval to back to around 20 seconds.
The Next Morning
When I arrived at work the next morning I zoomed over to find the nettle plant looking all
alone with no lady bug in sight. I unloaded the film and it was sent off to the lab via motorcycle currier with the rest of the days exposed footage from the studio. A few days later the same motorcycle arrived with a reel of film we could project in a darkened room. When I saw the magic of my lady bug’s wings, spots and red color appear before my eyes in just a few seconds, I was hooked.
The Room
Now a couple decades and hundreds of time lapses later, I’m updating my time lapse studio. I have a dedicated room where I can shoot time lapse. I have shot oak trees growing from acorns to a couple feet tall, water lilies flowering with the reflection of the moon sliding across the waters surface, giant mud flats cracking into sections and curling up while tracking across them, saguaro cactus flowers going from bud to ripe fruit over the course of a couple months and numerous flowers opening among other things.
Living in the desert, it gets quite hot in the summer. The old set up used metal halide lamps to stimulate and maintain plant growth. They consumed 1000 watts and caused the room to heat up like an oven. It cost a fortune to run the lights and cool the room. After a few years I couldn’t stomach the though of all the resources required for a shot let alone the cost. My room has now been on hold for a few years. Finally new technology is making it reasonable to get my room going again. Enter LED lighting. An LED of similar output to my old 1000 watt light uses less than a third of the energy and puts out even less than a third of the heat. Suddenly my room is bright, efficient and comfortable. I’m even using tiny, super color accurate and efficient LED’s to light my subjects. They are a breeze to place, often without needing a stand.
End of Part 1
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