I’m always looking for photography applications to use with middle school students. I was lucky enough to be part of an iPad Pilot program with our 7th grade last year. It gave me a chance to see first hand what this age group enjoy working with and what quickly turns them off. Some do well taking their time with painting applications and photography manipulation apps. All do well with fast apps, where you can see your results quickly. I think they will love Time Lapse Camera HD.
Time Lapse Camera HD costs just $.99. It is easy to use. I was able to figure it out quickly through trial and error. A help index is included in case you want to go beyond the basics – for instance, I looked up how to switch to a horizontal format from the vertical default. There is also a helpful review and guide here at Adorama TV.
One feature that I really enjoy is being able to add music to the video. I made a video of my husband making a plumbing repair to a pipe that was leaking into our kitchen ceiling and added the soundtrack “Fixing a Hole” by the Beatles. In my peacock video below, I use the Bob Marley song “Three Little Birds”. I had a little trouble downloading a song that was in the cloud and not on my computer, but once I downloaded the song to my computer, it was fine.
Another great feature is the interval setting and the duration setting. In order to shoot a video to match a 3 minute song, I set the interval setting to ¼ second between shots, and the duration to 3:10. My patience ran out before the duration timed out. I shot the video for 20 minutes, which ended up 4 minutes short of filming to end with the song. And then, just when I thought I was all set, I cut it in half for a speedier upload! Here it is:
From engaging students in the process of setting their still photography in motion to making short films a la Warhol, Time Lapse Camera HD is a fun application with serious potential for the middle school art room.