Hyperlapsing All Over The Park

Friday 23^rd January

Run #23

4k Park Trails and a Whole Lot of Unmeasured Ks

Friday was a glorious weather day. Frosty and azure with a sparkly sun and minimal wind. 

Still not back to 100% healthy I knew I wouldn't get a world-beater run out of today but figured I’d be Ok for a few consecutive K with no issue, which I did around some of the lesser trodden trails of the local end of Richmond Park. The rest of the few hours I was out in the Park I spent gadding about playing with a new iPhone app from Instagram that I’ve discovered called Hyperlapse.

Hyperlapse is a very simple and very basic video app where you shoot a short section of video and can then speed it up, up to 12x, to compress your film into a frenetic info-packed supershort that can then be filtered and tweaked in just the ways that Instagram photos can and uploaded and shared via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr.

A 2min video of a run sped up to 12 kicked out a crazy 10second montage of anything I could point my phone at while running along. The app has an auto-stabilization built in to minimise the inevitable bouncing around that could otherwise make shaky cam videos just too nausea inducing. However as the demo linked above shows, while perfect for staying still and shooting other moving things, or for shooting from various modes of transport, the effects of shooting while running are a tad more ‘frenetic’ shall we say.

Thoroughly unbothered by this, I happily bounced in fits and starts around the quieter paths of the Park for goodness knows how may K in total. All the while trying not to let my sticking out camera arm not throw me too off balance as I pointed it, mid-run, at any interesting trees, deer, paths and puddles that took my fancy and caring not a jot that I likely looked like a total loony to the few dog walkers and deer that did witness my micro-documentary making.

Hyperlapse videos of mine, and other runners who have done the same, can be currently found on Instagram with the tag #useyourrun