Paul Newson's Time Lapse Flower: Amaryllis (explicit lyrics)

I recorded my Amaryllis flower with my webcam for a month, taking 1 photo every 13m 20s. It is played back here at 25 frames per second to Liz Phair's song "Flower". This is my first attempt at timelapse photography, so it's not perfect, but not bad.

FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT DON'T UNDERSTAND MY CHOICE OF MUSIC:-

I guess the video is all about contrasts, the steady growth of the plant vs. the rapid background movements. The purity of nature vs. the very phallic imagery of the plant growth. The pure beauty of a flower blooming vs. the raw lyrics of the song. Plus the temp of the song matches the background movement rather well.

The bright red of the flower itself contrasts with the green of the stem and leaves too. This whole video was about contrasts and similarities so I really can't think of a piece of music that would be more fitting.

2 years ago, grayslanark made the following comment which sums it up nicely:-

"The choice of music is utterly brilliant, in my opinion. In addition to the well-conceived reasons you mention (and anybody who does not fnd a sexual suggestion in the image of the growing flower and emerging blossom must be dead in either the loins or imagination), the pacing of the song, together with its suggestion of slow repetition inexorably bring out the desired end, are both perfect.

I would also say that the juxtaposition of the purity of the image and the profanity of the song each add something to our understanding of the other: nature is, in fact, brutally reckless about reproducing life; and our most untamed lustful thoughts are, after all, wholly natural."

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• amaryllis
• flower
• flowers
• grow
• growing
• lapse
• nature
• hippeastrum
• plant
• photography
• art
• time
• timelapse
• speed
• liz
• phair

[amsbindi1]

This should be the official music video for the song. Great video, beautiful flower and good music choice. ^^

[paulnewson]

@amsbindi1 Thank you very much. It's an old song now and, if Liz Phair has seen the video, she hasn't told me about it. :)

[hamsterpajrules123]

how you shoot it

[paulnewson]

@hamsterpajrules123 On a cheap crappy 320x240 webcam with a table lamp for lighting - all the details are in the description.

[paulnewson]

@hamsterpajrules123 My mistake, I didn't put the details in the description at all.

I used a freeware security package to take the photos then another freeware software package to put them together into a video. The camera wasn't tracking the flower, I only moved it once every couple of days when the flower was about to grow out of shot and then used Adobe After Effects to make it look as if the camera was following the flower.

[drewloker]

Great video...too bad the song has unacceptable lyrics. I wanted to shot this to a high school photography class but can't because of the song. Do you have another version with a different song?

[paulnewson]

Unfortunately not. Couldn't you simply turn the volume off?

[paulnewson]

It does

[neonpike]

great video , with everything going on around the plant , great song too 

[dylandavies9]

skip the first minute, save 60 seconds of your time.

[ConstantineRobbins]

@drewloker where??!?!???

[mmmritza]

Awesome video to go with this song! Love it!!!! Great job.