Coolest thing to happen today. Sorry, everybody else. But Time and Google take the cake with this, first-ever, multi-decade timelapse of... wait for it... Planet Earth. The innovators at Google took satellite footage, both not available to the public and also choppy visual sequences that they had to upgrade to see the video above (and at time.com/timelapse).
It shows the sprawling of cities like Dubai (fascinating) and Las Vegas; Saudi Arabia's exponential growth in agriculture; and the unfortunate: the melting of the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska, the mining industry's decapitation of the mountains in West Virginia, and the removal of forests in the Amazon. All of these timelapses date as far back as the 80s and are amazing to see the appropriate growth or decay. Furthermore, this gives us all a better understanding at the ever-changing planet and the importance of preserving our natural resources. Our generation may not feel some of these effects first-hand, if at all in our lifetime, but we have to take care of our planet for future generations to come!
Props once again to Time and Google — find out all the details about the project, some conclusions, and more amazing photos here (all the links are the same!).
Chicago. Our hometown. And it's simply beautiful. I love everything about this city.
That's really all I have to say. I'm at a loss for words after watching this timelapse. Those are the thoughts runnin' through my head.
Major shouts to Eric Hines. Here's some more info on how he made the video... and a beautiful Chicago GIF to boot...
Please watch in Fullscreen & HD with sound for best quality.
Cityscape Chicago is a personal timelapse piece consisting of over 30,000 still photographs shot on the Canon 5D Mark III incrementally between July and October 2012 around downtown Chicago, Illinois.
The inspiration of this piece was my fascination with the city of Chicago, particularly at night. For me, there has always been a mysterious sort of feeling to Chicago at night, so I decided to explore and capture it.
