New York Stream

Actual Elapsed Time: 4 months (10,500,000 seconds)

Winter snow gives way to spring growth. Spring weather melts the snow and swells the stream. The snow leaves nothing alive, it seems, only bare ground and gray branches. But there is plenty of growth to come. Skunk cabbage is the first plant to grow, quickly taking advantage of the slowness of the other plants and trees. The cabbage grows with its leaves out and gets all the sun it can before the light is blocked by the leaves of taller plants. You can watch the sky and the ground vanish behind a cover of leaves.

How This Clip Was Made:

This time-lapse video was created from a series of still pictures. A 35mm still camera with an automatic timer was placed inside a box and mounted in front of the scene. The timer triggered the camera to take a picture every day. The images were digitized and transferred to a PhotoCD. Twenty pictures from a set of 120 images were then selected and put together to form this video. Production: Bob Hone, Alan Berkowitz, Institute for Ecosystem Studies. Post-Production: Todd Reamon.

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