Textures of Time

Ever since we were assigned to find "evidences" of textures of time, I was thinking what constituted it. I could never fully grasp the idea of time having a texture - after all, time is not something physical. That's what I thought. Time affects everything and it affects us. It is only through the passage of time that we can see changes and movements. So I thought, if it is time we are looking at, why not observe the most basic but fundamental evidence of time? It's something humans have used centuries ago to keep track of time. No, not the sundial but the sun. I wanted to record the movement of the sun when it is most striking and beautiful - the sunset. (I've thought of dawn too but I just wasn't up to the task of waking at 5 or 6 in the morning - who would?)

So yesterday, I watched the sun set on campus. The sky was clear and it wasn't too cold. We chose a spot behind the stadium grounds. I had my camera and my phone to catch the moment. I brought a friend with me to take the pictures with the point-and-shoot camera while I take the video with my iPhone. We started filming at 5:55pm (according to the Web, sunset in Stony Brook would be at 5:58pm). The battery of the point-and-shoot camera ran out after 5 minutes. I had to hold my phone as steady as I could for who knows how long without making so much noise so my phone wouldn't catch it. It definitely wasn't looking good.

After exactly 20 minutes, I stopped recording because my arms were getting numb and I was starting to shake (I should've used a tripod but I wasn't thinking that ahead). But all that wasn't for naught. I knew I caught a really good footage (minus the shakes) when halfway through the filming, I saw the most amazing thing - the atmospheric effect by the setting sun. It was so beautiful I kept on mouthing to my friend (remember I was afraid to make any sounds?) the words, "OMG! That is pretty!"

So yeah, I downloaded the video and the pictures in my computer to post on this blog but an idea came to my mind: rather than just posting the pictures and video, I'll mix 'em together and make a short presentation. 'Til later.