Recently I have been exploring the use of time-lapse photography to share some of out travel experiences and also as a new way to use my hobby of photography. I was really excited to find, after doing some research, that if you have an iPhone you can make an High Definition Time-Lapse movie for less than $15. Also, if you have an iPhone 3GS or newer iPhone you can even make a movie larger than 1080i with dimensions of 1536×2048 and above. Let’s get started! I’ll give you two buying options as well as some recommendations for software to help you take your time-lapse further. I recommend the GorillaPod if you want the most versatility as it will attache almost anywhere and stay there for as long as you need.
Here’s is what you’ll need to buy:

Technically you can actually start making time-lapse movies right now for only the price of the iPhone App and a paper clip, I recommend getting a tripod for more versatility.
Once you have everything ready, set your iPhone up, open up the iTimeLapse application and do the following:
1. Select New Project.
2. Select the settings you want.
3. Select capture resolution to at least 1200×1600
When you are all set hit the Start Time Lapse button and then Start at the top if you set it for Manual Start. You press pause if you need to at any time and also Exit to change the settings or finish the project. Once finished capturing, Set your preferred render settings, again with at least 1200×1600 for resolution, and then grab a good book and click Render Now. Once finished you can watch and share your movie via YouTube, FaceBook and supposedly Vimeo, although I have yet to get this to work.

Congratulations! You’ve made your first HD TimeLapse Movie. If you found this helpful and have made your own time-lapse movie post the link in the comments and we may highlight it in a future post. Enjoy!

Here’s a time-lapse I made while visiting Guilin, China to give you and idea of what you can do with this app. Hope you enjoy.

If you need any help with the iPhone App, check the help page here, or feel free to send me a quick email if you can’t find what you’re looking for.

UPDATE: I was honored to have this post mentioned on Jason Teale’s photography blog a couple weeks ago. Check out the post on time lapse here. If you haven’t heard of Jason before, he is a very talented Canadian photographer and friend of mine who has been living in and capturing the beauty of South Korea as well as other countries for more than 7 years now. You can check out his flickr page here and if you love photography, I recommend subscribing to his blog as I do. He always has inspiring, educational, though provoking and inspirational posts to share about photography no matter where you live in the world.