Winter on Georgian Bay
May 18, 2014 4:55 AM   Subscribe

Winter on Georgian Bay : “Highlights of a four-month time-lapse taken from a cottage overlooking Lake Huron, during an absolutely epic winter.” [via mefi projects]
posted by scruss (24 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
So cool. My parents live across the st from a lake in New England. I'm constantly wishing they lived ON the lake so I could do this exact thing. It wouldn't be as awesome as this, tho.
posted by nevercalm at 4:59 AM on May 18, 2014


Wow, kaibutsu, this is phenomenal! And thank you, scruss, for posting. It's the perfect combination of breathtaking beauty and inspired geekery. I love it!

I'm curious: given how well your smoothing algorithm reduces the flicker, do you think in retrospect it was necessary to modulate the shutter speed &c. over the course of the day?
posted by Westringia F. at 5:11 AM on May 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


Neat... It would be great to see the whole winter (this is "highlights" of the best days)..... Thanks for the post...
posted by HuronBob at 5:21 AM on May 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


That was beautiful and surprisingly captivating - the editing and the excellent music and choreography build a really interesting narrative.
posted by Flashman at 6:00 AM on May 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


OH! Music! I watched it twice with with the sound off, not realizing it. I like what it adds, especially the first piece. What are we listening to?

I am totally entranced with the way the ice sheets move on the lake. Really looking forward to the full-length video.
posted by Westringia F. at 6:28 AM on May 18, 2014


My dad's family is from Owen Sound; I've spent a lot of Christmases up there by the bay amid snowdrifts taller than me, had summer jobs there. It's great.

But Georgian Bay is not in "Northern Ontario," as the accompanying text claims. It's in the northern part of Southern Ontario. It's only two hours from Toronto. It's cottage country. (You do not want a cottage in Northern Ontario, unless you're partial to blackflies and boredom.)
posted by Sys Rq at 6:35 AM on May 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


The photos were soothing and beautiful. I spent many happy summer vacations on Georgian Bay as a kid and just reading the title of this post gave me a sweet and intense feeling of nostalgia. Thanks!
posted by bluespark25 at 6:41 AM on May 18, 2014


Beautiful, and mesmerizing - I kept saying "One more minute..." to myself as I watched - I wanted to see what happened next. Thanks for this.
posted by rtha at 6:50 AM on May 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


Lovely! Interesting the lake seems to ice up three times before it takes sticks. Can't wait to show it to my cottage friends on the big TV.
posted by Jesse the K at 7:21 AM on May 18, 2014


Deer! Soon after 7:25
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 8:00 AM on May 18, 2014


they didn't get as much snow there as we did in w michigan
posted by pyramid termite at 8:05 AM on May 18, 2014


Or possibly a small møøse.
posted by A dead Quaker at 8:08 AM on May 18, 2014 [4 favorites]


As the ice cleared in April I was expecting (hoping) to see Paddle to the Sea washed up on the shore there.
posted by hangashore at 8:36 AM on May 18, 2014 [4 favorites]


Nice job. I've linked your page as a comparison to the time lapse I did of A year on Stoney Lake.

Your image quality is a lot better than the quick job I did with no correction and based on cheap webcam images.

I'm looking forward to compiling this winter's images into a new time lapse soon.
posted by Geo at 8:41 AM on May 18, 2014


I spent a mostly aimless winter looking out the window in a place overlooking the bottom end of Lake Huron. In watching this video I was reminded of how late in the season the full freeze happened. Seems to be late February in the video. Here, watching out the window, once the lake was frozen it seemed like the ice had been there forever. But then our late tentative spring happened and for a couple weeks I could watch the patterns in its drift as the ice broke apart and floated away. I could marvel at the bravery or foolishness of the ice fisherman who still crouched over holes out on the yacht club bay as the day temperature hit 18C and others were walking about in shorts. Within a week of the melt I could hardly remember how there had ever been anything but open water there. Guess we just quickly adapt to accepting the state of how something is. For residual effect, there have been like 12 to 16 freighters anchored out on the horizon for a few weeks now, just waiting. I guess at one point it was because there was still plenty of ice further north, but now it's because with the delay getting started there's a shortage of the local pilots who are required to navigate the waters.
posted by TimTypeZed at 8:48 AM on May 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


Ah winter. So beautiful, until you have to scrape your windshield with a wicked, bitter wind slamming you in the face.
posted by davebush at 9:33 AM on May 18, 2014


This was really cool to watch. From a distance. In California.
posted by ambrosia at 9:38 AM on May 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


I also want to know what music this is. I recognize it and can't place it ... Gorgeous video
posted by chapps at 11:13 AM on May 18, 2014


This is the best thing I've seen and heard for a long time.

Guys, the music credits are at the YT site.
'Gnossienne No. 1,' by Erik Satie, performed and arranged by Chad Crouch, from a really fantastic collection of interpretations of Satie's work.
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Chad_Crouch/Vol_4_Satie_Rearranged_Furniture_Music

'Nostalgia of an Ex-Gangsta Rappa,' by deef.
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/deef/Beat_Scene_Routine/4_-_deef_-_nostalgia_of_an_ex-gangsta-rapper

'Anti-Saloon League Midnight Mystery,' by Fields of Ohio.
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Fields_of_Ohio/Woods_Without_Maps/Fields_of_Ohio_-_Woods_without_Maps_-_08_Anti-Saloon_League_Midnight_Mystery
posted by maudlin at 11:45 AM on May 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


It's only two hours from Toronto. It's cottage country.

Northern Ontario is everything north of Barrie. It's like how upstate New York starts north of NYC.

In other words, a matter of opinion
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 3:12 PM on May 18, 2014


It's actually a defined area.

Of course, the eastern side of Georgian Bay is defined as *shrug*
posted by Sys Rq at 3:47 PM on May 18, 2014


Hi, all!

Westringia F: given how well your smoothing algorithm reduces the flicker, do you think in retrospect it was necessary to modulate the shutter speed[?]

When I started doing timelapse, I was doing pretty much everything with postprocessing, and found it didn't work so well, actually. I think for shorter shoots it makes sense to do a constant SS/ISO and then do postprocessing, but for things that are running across an entire day (including, say, a few hours with the sun directly in the lens) a fixed SS/ISO does't really work. On the other hand, using the automatic SS/ISO settings from frame to frame tends to create way too much variance for the postprocessing to deal with effectively: Post processing has the most hope when your images are already high quality.

Music:

It's pretty fun trawling through the infinite expanse of the Free Music Archive looking for cool stuff. My partner found the Chad Crouch piece (I haven't spent a lot of time in the 'classical' section, spending more time ruling out each and every chip tune). He's actually really fantastic, and has piles of music for use in video and film projects, aiming for licensing from commercial projects. Searchable by mood and genre!

The glitchy piece by deef is great because, hey, if something is always happening in the music, it will necessarily line up with the images!

And the Fields of Ohio song just feels so much like impending summer with an air of endless winter...
posted by kaibutsu at 4:18 PM on May 18, 2014 [4 favorites]


I finally got around to posting the full 40 minute timelapse, with all of the footage from December 27th to May 7th. It's a lot more staring at ice; the main effect is to make it a lot more exciting when something interesting happens! (Sorry for the delay; was on the road without good bandwidth for uploading 2 gigs of video.)
posted by kaibutsu at 9:48 AM on May 21, 2014 [6 favorites]


Wow. WOW. I set this going on the big screen beside me while I work, thinking that I'd be content to keep it in the background, but no: I'm completely transfixed. The view from my own window is very similar -- I live right on the shore of Lake Michigan and I'm often a little surprised at how mutable it is -- but watching it change... the storms blowing through, the thaws, the changing hue & texture of the bay, the sun rising higher & higher... it's utterly captivating. Thank you!
posted by Westringia F. at 4:02 AM on May 22, 2014


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