Time-lapse Sequences from Glacier National Park's Webcams

The Finished Videos - One Day in Glacier National Park:

• Two Medicine Webcam (above)

• Red Eagle Mountain on Google Video

• Park Headquarters on Google Video

How To Create Time-lapse Movies:

Step 1: Use an automated method to save the images.

(for example, the bash script below)

Step 2: Create a movie from the images using Google's Picasa

Movie instructions and Picasa photo software

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Step 3 (optional): Slow down movie using Windows Movie Maker 2.1 .

Step 4: Upload movies to Google Video ...done!

Bash Script that saves webcam images every 5 minutes:

#!/usr/bin/bash
#
# This bash script (running on Windows using Cygwin) captured
# 553 images from http://www.nps.gov/glac/webcams/hqcam.htm               
#
# If you plan on using this code, BE NICE and CONSIDER THE PARK SERVICE'S BANDWIDTH COSTS
# Webcams supported by the Glacier Natural History Assoc. and The Glacier Fund
#
# SCRIPT PURPOSE: Every 5 minutes, download images for hqcam (headquarters), 
# tmcam (two medicine), and smcam (st.marys).
# The Webcams themselves update no more than once every 5 minutes.
#
COUNTER=0

while [  $COUNTER -lt 250 ]; do
	sleep 300 	# in seconds, 5min * 60sec/min = 300sec
	curl --silent http://some.url.here.to.jpg > hqcam.$COUNTER.jpg
	sleep 3
	curl --silent http://some.url.here.to.jpg > tmcam.$COUNTER.jpg
	sleep 3
	curl --silent http://some.url.here.to.jpg > smcam.$COUNTER.jpg
	       
	echo -n The counter is $COUNTER  '   '
	date
	let COUNTER=COUNTER+1
done