Swirling mist and clouds at twilight

A time-lapse study of mist and clouds at twilight, filmed in Great Torrington, North Devon, England.  The swirling mist is very eerie and allows the viewer a glimpse into another world, one which exists in a much slower time frame.

As I experiment with time lapse photography, I begin to see nature at a different, much slower speed. Mist and clouds have a completely different life if you slow down your perception. At 30x speed, mist and cloud move like creatures, they swirl, grow and dart from pace to place, they move like giant waves and seem to have their own societies and will. This is not seen at normal speed, as they are moving too slowly. We see them as static forms, devoid of movement, but in a time-lapse film they come to life.

I can see that my own life has a deeper flow at this and even slower speeds. There is the industrious 30Hz Beta brainwave frequency, in which we spend most of our waking life, and the delta frequency of around 1Hz which is present during deep sleep. The difference in frequency is the same magnitude as the difference between our waking perception of static clouds and the time-lapse speed where the clouds and mist come to life.

You cannot turn a supertanker on a dime. Life is like this, we may make changes at 'normal speed' but only see the context of our life at the slower speed. We become impatient for change because we expect everything to happen at the Beta frequency. Our life comes into focus in months and years and only then does the overall pattern become apparent. For me this is the pattern of meditation, peace and subtle communion with the elements. To be at one with this level of being I need to slow down, moving from staccato to stillness.