This is a 40 second time lapse that covers 3 weeks of the life of Trilliums in the forest. Trilliums are a large three petaled flower that appear in mid spring. They are in a race for light with the trees of the forest. They triumphantly grow, raising their white heads to the sky until the trees leaf out and block the light. Then the Trilliums rest until the next spring, when they grace the forest floor once again.
If you look closely there are other flowers that make appearances in this time lapse, including Dutchman Breeches, Spring Beauty, and Canada Violet. But its the Trilliums that steal the show.
This time lapse was made with a GoPro camera. At the same time that the Trilliums are out Morel Mushrooms are coming up too and many people take to the woods in search of this delicacy. I was concerned that my camera would walk away with a mushroom hunter, so my friend Bob Hess and I camouflaged it.
I found a small stump that we could move around. Bob made two cuts in it the height of the camera, then I chiseled out between the cuts and we slide the camera into the notch and screwed it in place. We buried the base of the stump, ran a cable to a battery pack that I buried under the leaves and then we put some moss around the stump to cover the cable and the notch. It worked like a charm. I had three photos during the time lapse where mushroom hunters wandered into the scene, but no one noticed the camera.
I've been testing all kinds of extended time lapse setups for the Nature of the Wild project. I've even been running them under water. I'll be posting more as I wrap up some of my experiments...
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