Websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have produced some of the most exciting pieces of technology in the past decade.
From Bublcam to ARKYD, the first publicly accessible telescope, there is an infinite space in which someone’s bedroom idea can turn into a successful business, capable of enriching people’s creative lives.
Triggertrap, a mobile-friendly intervalometer capable of creating beautiful time-lapse and HDR photography with a tap on a screen, was funded on Kickstarter in 2011 and has gone on to find wide success in the photography tech market with over 750,000 downloads of the app and products sold in over 100 countries.
Marked at £30, this universal intervalometer has revolutionised the way we do our time-lapse; not only has it made these shots more accessible but it has broadened the horizons of long-time photographers hoping to create more diverse content, from warping time-lapse, which fluctuates the speed at which photos are taken, to distance-lapse, which can make a start-and-stop bus ride turn into a tunnel vision spectacle by taking pictures by distance travelled rather than time passed.
Londonlapse was organised by Triggertrap, who brought in users of the small piece of tech to broadcast just how easy it is to plug in and shoot – 40 photographers came together in London to create the ‘most ambitious crowd-sourced time-lapse’ in history.
The result was an inspiring three-minute compilation of panning sunsets, blurring crowds, and iconic landmarks that gave huge publicity to the app, cementing it as a game-changing piece of tech. In October 2015, they recreated this event in a bid to create an even more ambitious piece of work.
Lapseworld will take place in London, New York, San Francisco, Milan and Cape Town throughout the month of October in a hope to accomplish an even more moving bringing to life of the cities.
The London event featured guest speaker Kevin Meredith going over of the basics, detailing the strict rules in which time-lapse is performed.
“Always shoot in manual” are the four words every photographer will stick by, and it’s a similar situation when it comes to time-lapse. “Setting up a shot isn’t like composing a still; time-lapse can be quite frustrating,” he said.
Meredith is in the process of documenting the conscription of the i360 tower in Brighton. On top of this, he maintains an up-to-date website and social media presence through which he publishes all of his content.
His support of Triggertrap is backed up by his powerful work; from astral photography to building sandcastles, Meredith claims this new piece of tech has given him an opportunity to create small-scale shots with ease and expand his professional work to new peaks.
Although Meredith is famous for his lomographic style, in reference to a shot he created of the Bristol Balloon fiesta he says that “the great thing about time-lapse is you can see how things behave more clearly”.
Managing Director of Triggertrap, Mat Rodger, believes that the success of the product was down to its competitive pricing and its ability to perform like no other intervalometer.
“Things like intervalometers, sound triggers, motion sensors, GPS triggering, these sort of things are ways of taking pictures that many photographers will never have considered previously, either because of the high costs and expert knowledge involved, or even just the relative obscurity of the technique,” he told Artefact.
Rodger added that unlike a lot of high-priced tech, Triggertrap is something that is constantly being updated. “We added the Timelapse Pro app to the IOS app store in September and it’s only the first in a number of things we’re hoping to add. There’s a lot of work being done behind the scenes.”
In response to the question of whether new inventions in photography technology are devaluing the skills required by a professional photographer, Roger responded: “Buying a hammer and some nails doesn’t magically make you able to build a birdhouse.”
With the eclectic mixture of people attending the event, this is a product that appeals to both ends of the spectrum.
There are amateurs who have never done a time-lapse before, those who have been avid photographers for most their professional lives, and then there are the heavy artillery enthusiasts with kit bags full of mechanical sliders and GPS locaters, all functioning a purpose to help push each photographer’s work further in order to shine above the rest.
It now seems as though Triggertrap is quickly becoming a part of that essential arsenal.
Featured image by Alim Mohammed via Flickr CC