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            As a National Geographic subscriber through my school library, I receive weekly emails with links to stunning natural photography by professional and non-professional photographers. A recent email included links to several short videos utilizing time-lapse photography. One featured video is titled Illusions of Light: A Journey into the Unseen by Goldpaint Photography (Brad Goldpaint). The video begins with night scenes of Los Angeles and streaks of colored lights from moving cars and flashing signs sped up by the time-lapse trickery. A narrator tells of the 1994 earthquake that caused massive power outages and how many residents called 911 when they observed a strange silver cloud in the night sky. They were among the estimated 80 million people on earth (at the time) who had never seen the Milky Way, the band of stars most visible in the unpolluted night sky that is the galaxy in which our home planet, and we as its progeny, reside. The remainder of the video is an incredible series of views of the Milky Way from various Earth vantage points as that band of stars appears to move across the sky. We know, of course, that it is Earth’s rotation that makes the stars appear to move just as we experience the apparent movement of the sun and the moon.

            The 1982 documentary Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance was a narration-less film largely shot with time-lapse footage. An insistent, repetitive score by Philip Glass, noted for his spare, almost monotonous (minimalist) compositions, emphasized the urgent energy of the imposition of civilization on nature. The title, Koyaanisqatsi, in the Hopi language means “unbalanced life” as indicated in the film’s subtitle. Although there is much beautiful photography in the film, a viewer is left with a disturbed feeling and uneasiness at being witness to the impact that our modern lifestyle has had on the planet and ourselves.

            Illusion of Light, on the other hand, is a video with positive intent to illustrate the beauty of nature captured through time-lapse sped-up imagery particularly the effects of sky (and space) as an expansive adjunct to the already expansive natural settings on Earth. It emphasizes the grandeur of the world we inhabit. Time-lapse photography collapses extended natural movement into seconds rather than hours. Therefore, we can easily experience transitions we might not otherwise notice so easily like the arcing motion of the galaxy’s luminous path across the expanse of night sky from horizon to horizon. In fact, the entire visible field of stars moves together. The creators of the video illustrate for the rest of us what ancient ancestors so carefully observed as part of natural changes, daily and seasonal rhythms. Ancient Egyptians, Persians, pre-Columbian Peruvians, Pacific Islander seafarers, and the Celts, among other ancient cultures utilized the stars for both practical and spiritual purposes.

        Art teaches us the wisdom of our ancestors as well as reminds us of what we have forgotten or may overlook in our haste to attend to what seems important in the moment but has evaporated by the next day if not the next hour.

To watch the video: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/short-film-showcase/time-lapse-lose-yourself-in-the-night-sky?source=relatedvideo