Timelapse clips - The world sped up.

[Samael]

Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing. For example, an image of a scene may be captured once every second, and then played back at 30 frames per second; the result would be an apparent increase of speed by 30 times. Time-lapse photography can be considered to be the opposite of high speed photography.

Processes that would normally appear subtle to the human eye, such as the motion of the sun and stars in the sky, become very pronounced. Time-lapse is the extreme version of the cinematography technique of undercranking, and can be confused with stop motion animation.

I tried to come up with an explanation that is both succinct and informative, but I think the wiki entry is the best for it.
I've always enjoyed such timelapse videos, and, to my eternal regret, I'm still not finding any good ones about the big US cities, like L.A. or New York. Nevertheless I think I have a few I'd like to share just because of how beautiful they are.

The Mountain
The Mountain

Time Elapse - Adagio in D minor
http://youtu.be/cTRyZAI60DQ

[Shjade]

I've always enjoyed such timelapse videos, and, to my eternal regret, I'm still not finding any good ones about the big US cities, like L.A. or New York.

Hm. I see what you mean. Of the handful of NYC timelapses I looked over none were uploaded with the same crisp, clean quality as that mountain video. All the same, may as well set them to look over.

New York City Time Lapse from Blueglaze LLC on Vimeo. Audio's a bit distorted, unfortunately.

New York City HD TimelapseVideo's blocky on this one. :|

Another Day in Los AngelesThis one actually has a couple of really nice shots in it. Pity it's so short.