A year in the life of a Norwegian forest (time lapse video)

by Kent Wien on

In 2005, Eirik Solheim shot a still picture of his back yard in Norway every day for an entire year. He aligned the pictures together and created a beautiful time lapse. Since his 2005 version, he’s managed to do a higher resolution movie in 2008 and finally, during all of last year, he put together time lapse that uses video clips.

Eirik chose the amazing Canon 5D Mark II for this experiment and I think it turned out even better than his still image versions, because he used the HD video function of the 5D Mark II.

Eirik explains the 2009 project:

This time I recorded 30 second video clips each time. My idea was that it would be possible to dissolve between the videos to get the same kind of time lapse effect, but this time with motion all the way. Snow falling, wind blowing etc.
2009 is over and I have now put all the clips I recorded through the year into a couple of videos. I recorded clips with a 15mm fisheye, a 24mm wide angle and a 50mm lens. I’ve made three different versions.

If Eirik shot thirty-second scenes once a week for a year, he likely ended up with 8GB of video per version, for a total of 24GB of footage. He then had to align and process each clip to correct for the fisheye distortion and edited it all together, with some smooth transitions between each scene. Some serious work.

The results really show off the sounds and the sights from the four seasons in Norway. His efforts took a lot of work and they’re well worth the recognition he’s getting. And as if this wasn’t enough, Eirik also provides a tutorial, complete with video on how to do your own time lapse movie on his award winning blog. Give him a digg if you enjoy it.

Photo of the day 12.14.09

by Karen Walrond on


This year, I’m feeling just full of the holiday spirit, so in looking for tonight’s Photo of the Day, I decided to base my search on holiday phrases. While this beautiful photograph, entitled “blue december” and shared by kanelstrand isn’t exactly what I had in mind, you can certainly see why I was drawn to this image with its strong lines and vivid colours. A really arresting shot.

If you’ve got some great travel shots you’d love to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day.

Mysterious blue light shines over Norway

by Katie Hammel on

On December 9th, residents of northern Norway were surprised to see a weird blue light shining above. According to reports, the beam of light seemed to point to the sky from behind a mountain. As the light began moving in circles, forming a spiral, a brighter beam came out of the center. The phenomenon lasted for about 12 minutes.

After the light disappeared, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute was inundated with calls from people asking about what they had seen. Almost as quickly, people began speculating about what the light could have been from. Air traffic controllers who saw the light said it lasted too long to be astronomical, and it is not believed to be connected to the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights.

Another conjecture was that the light came from Russian missile testing in the White Sea but the Russian Navy has denied any such testing. Experts say that if the missile exploded, the leaking jet fuel could create the odd pattern. Of course, there are some who have a few more far fetched ideas. Black hole, UFO, astronomical event or man-made light show – we many never know what really caused the odd light pattern.

Get out and go: Events around the world (December 9-14)

by Brenda Yun on

It’s time to look at the festivals and events happening around the world, and this week has a particularly international selection of happenings. If you’re close and have time, then you have no excuse to get out and go!

  • Toronto – The Festival of Carols, a holiday tradition, will be held in Toronto this Wednesday, December 9th.
  • Oslo – The Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony will be held in Oslo Thursday, December 10th. The Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony takes place every 10th of December, the date on which Alfred Nobel died in 1896.
  • Cape Town – The Hout Bay Harbour Festival will take place in Hout Bay, Cape Town on Friday, December 11. The festival will continue until December 13.
  • St Lucia – The Festival of Lights Celebration will take place for two days in St Lucia starting this Saturday, December 12. Saint Lucians celebrate this day by going to church services, attending parades and rallies, organizing sports meetings and staging cultural presentations. December 13th is the National Day of St Lucia.
  • Auckland – Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park will take place in Auckland on Saturday, December 12 . This is a free musical event that begins at 7:30 p.m.
  • Tokyo – Gishi-sai takes place on Sunday, December 13 in Tokyo, Japan. This is a festival honoring the forty-seven loyal retainers (ronin) in Akoh, who were made popular in movies and dramas.
  • Tanjay City – The Bod-Bod Festival will take place Monday, December 14th in Tanjay City in the Philippines. The festival celebratesto the Bod-bod, a native delicacy made of glutinous rice, coconut milk, sugar and salt. The festival will continue until December 16th.

If you make it to one of these events, let us know how it was, or if you know of an even that’s coming up, please let us here at Gadling know and we’ll be sure to include it in the next “Get out and go” round-up.

Crazy roads from around the world

by Kraig Becker on

Lets face it! We all love a good road trip now and again. Who hasn’t enjoyed hopping in the car with some friends to hit the open road? And when that road is unique and interesting, it makes the journey all the more fun. To helps us find more of those roads Popular Mechanics has put together a list of their selections for the 18 strangest roadways from around the world.

As you can imagine, the list, which includes photographs of each of the routes, has some crazy roads, often located in exotic locations. Take for example, the Hana Highway on Maui, Hawaii. This road made the list thanks to the stunningly beautiful views of rocky cliffs on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. But what really sets it apart is the 600 curves and 54 bridges, spread out over just 52 miles of pavement.

If you prefer the mountains to the ocean and you’re looking for something more remote for your next road trip, then consider the Karakoram Highway, which runs for 800 miles between Pakistan and China. This road winds through the Karakoram and Himalaya mountain ranges, and reaches altitudes in excess of 15,390 feet. Altitude sickness can be a legitimate concern for drivers making this drive.

A number of countries are represented on this list, including Italy, Iceland, China, Argentina, Norway, and more. Some of these streets are marvels of modern engineering, while others are primitive and basic. But they all have one thing in common, they are unique and interesting in their own way, and each of them will give you a road trip to remember.