Public Lab Wiki documentation



Photo Monitoring

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Photography is a powerful and affordable way to document all kinds of environmental issues. We'll be collecting different techniques and tips here -- stay tuned and pitch in where you can! We'll be starting with a focus on #timelapse photography:

Why

Timelapse photography is a visual form of data collection that:

  • is relatively cheap to collect (~$100, see below)
  • produces easier-to-read data: photos
  • can give good visual context to a problem, compared to (or paired with) sensor data
  • situates the data in a timeline

What environmental problems might this apply to

Timelapse photography, or photographic monitoring is a good way to document the changes in a landscape over time, or an incident you need images of when you might not be there to capture them in person such as:

image description

(Above: monitoring a mountaintop removal site: see this note)

Limitations

  • To set up the camera, you will need access to a secure location where your site of interest can be seen.
  • Depending on how often you have the camera set to take photos, you could end up with a lot of images to go through.
  • There have been documented challenges in capturing images with glare (from the sun, snow and water) (see Frequently Asked Questions)

Conversations & collaboration

  • Discussions around photographic monitoring are happening on the Midwest group through a few on-going projects, as well as on publiclab.org through this page (see the Activities, Frequently Asked Questions, and Updates sections below)

Midwest group: publiclab-midwest


timelapse-camera

Get a timelapse camera

Timelapse cameras can be found at sporting goods stores and online. They are also called "trail cameras" or "game cameras."

See the Timelapse Kit page for more, and to borrow one (if available)

Case studies

Title Author Updated Likes Comments
Nothing yet on the topic "timelapse:story" -- be the first to post something!


Related techniques

Timelapse photography may also make use of a number of other techniques, such as:

There are also possibilities with cell-network-enabled trail cameras, though they're mostly a bit more expensive; they'd need a mobile phone plan and a SIM card to work. Many are around $400, but these (pretty poorly rated) ones were around $100:


Updates

Title Author Updated Likes Comments
Problem with Photo Monitoring Plugin on Fiji @SamWolfe over 3 years ago 3
JAM#6: Documentación Fotográfica @imvec almost 4 years ago 0
Is a Water Proof Solar Raspberry Pi Camera project viable? @icarito over 5 years ago 9
Website for public data @ottinger over 5 years ago 1
Proofmode + Open Camera @imvec about 6 years ago 3
Set up a Mobius Action Cam for timelapse @warren almost 3 years ago 0
What tags are helpful for flood/disaster images? @zengirl2 over 6 years ago 0
Mapping rugged coastal environments with a Raspberry Pi and a balloon? @samwf over 6 years ago 8
Rough prototype of video analysis tool for monitoring a pixel's brightness/color over time @warren over 6 years ago 2
Stormwater Workshop 6: Monitoring and Lessons Learned @stevie over 6 years ago 0
Time lapse mode on the Crenova Game camera @stevie over 6 years ago 2
How do I cheaply do long-term outdoor timelapses? @warren over 6 years ago 1
Use Archive.org to share large photo collections @xose almost 7 years ago 7
Use Google Drive to share large photo collections @warren almost 7 years ago 0
Share large numbers of photos (or files) using BitTorrent @warren almost 7 years ago 0
Mary Dougherty's guidelines for submitting pollution photos to the Wisconsin DNR @mathew almost 7 years ago 0
UWEC air quality monitoring @bkleist almost 7 years ago 3
Frac sand hotspot testing and site survey @stevie almost 7 years ago 0
Good guides on doing a photo survey of a site? @warren about 7 years ago 5
Next Saturday: Timelapse Kit workshop and Social Emergency Response Center in Somerville @warren about 7 years ago 4
Trail Cam: Stream/ Wetland Sedimentation @dswenson about 7 years ago 10
Air Quality Monitoring at UWEC @bkleist about 7 years ago 10
Considerations when using timelapse to monitor blasting at mine sites? @mlamadrid about 7 years ago 0
Photo Documentation of Frac Sand Mine Surface Water Spills @mlamadrid about 7 years ago 1

Timelapse Activities

Timelapse photography is a way to automatically trigger a camera on an interval -- for example, every minute, or every hour.

Here are some posted activities related to timelapse; we're still seeking a clear guide to setting up and using a #trail-cam to do timelapses, so please reach out if you're able to help document this!

Purpose Category Status Author Time Difficulty Replications
Raspberry + NoIR cam + Sensors to detect water stress of the plants during their growing - - @LaPa - - 0 replications: Try it »
How to visually document a site - - @stevie - - 1 replications: Try it »
Use a rubber band and knotted string to trigger a camera build complete @mathew 15m easy 0 replications: Try it »
Scripting Raspberry Pi to boot and shoot timelapse photos build review-me @mathew - hard 0 replications: Try it »
Hacking trail cameras to document blasts on Mountaintop Removal sites - - @LauraChipley - - 0 replications: Try it »
Bean Cam observe - @cfastie 1d medium 0 replications: Try it »
Set up a Raspberry Pi Camera with Pi Builder - - @warren - - 0 replications: Try it »
Using Mobius camera as a "trap cam" in field deployments - - @tonyc - - 0 replications: Try it »
Testing - water depth from camera image - - @chalmers - - 0 replications: Try it »
Set up a Mobius Action Cam for timelapse - - @warren - - 0 replications: Try it »
IR+VS TIMELAPSE - - @hunter - - 0 replications: Try it »
CrocusCam observe - @cfastie 10h hard 0 replications: Try it »
DaffyCam - - @cfastie - - 0 replications: Try it »
Time lapse mode on the Crenova Game camera - - @stevie - - 0 replications: Try it »

Activities should include a materials list, costs and a step-by-step guide to construction with photos. Learn what makes a good activity here.

Frequently Asked Questions

We're collecting and working our way through a wide array of questions about timelapse photography -- if you can contribute your own questions, or answer others', please do!

Title Author Updated Likes Comments
Is a Water Proof Solar Raspberry Pi Camera project viable? @icarito over 5 years ago 9
Advice regarding taking photos over frozen @dailyxeoto almost 6 years ago 1
How To Make Time Lapse Spectrometer @LightWaveResearch8000 over 6 years ago 2
How do I cheaply do long-term outdoor timelapses? @warren over 6 years ago 1
How can real-time camera monitoring be set up? @cherylh almost 7 years ago 4
How do different time intervals for timelapse cameras affect their required maintenance? @cherylh almost 7 years ago 4
Considerations when using timelapse to monitor blasting at mine sites? @mlamadrid about 7 years ago 0
Advice regarding taking photos over frozen surface? @stevie about 7 years ago 5
How do you get the Crenova Game and Trail Hunting Camera into time-lapse mode? @stevie over 7 years ago 5
How do I make a video from a series of photos? @warren over 7 years ago 7
What are ways to strengthen photographic evidence in court? @warren over 7 years ago 0
Trail camera on State Park Land? @DMerwitz over 7 years ago 3
Can we use a timelapse or video camera to monitor particulate air plumes? @gretchengehrke over 7 years ago 4
Is there a water quality equivalent of Smoke School, the EPA air pollution observer certification? @warren over 7 years ago 1
What's the best way to archive/store a timelapse video? @warren over 7 years ago 3
Has anyone used a timelapse camera in stream monitoring? @stevie over 7 years ago 15
Has anyone tried a dashboard camera for timelapse or aerial mapping? @warren over 7 years ago 3
Initial results and resolution of timelapse mode issue: PL Mobius Infragram Point and Shoot @patcoyle over 9 years ago 3


Frac sand photographic monitoring

There's some good resources posted on this page which are specific to water monitoring or monitoring of frac sand sites -- check it out, and we're working to open some of these ideas up into questions and activities soon.


About the data

Type of data This method produces data in the form of images. Most cameras are also able to timestamp images.

Addons:

  • Some cameras also have the ability to capture GPS data.
  • This monitoring method can be paired with weather monitoring stations for a richer data set.
  • Sending images to the internet has been another add-on for these type of projects.

Uses for the data