RAVENSWOOD — Paul Zakas found a way to shorten the length of road construction from weeks to seconds.
Time lapse video.
Zakas, 28, set up a camera outside his apartment on North Paulina Street, across from Ravenswood Elementary, and captured a year's worth of activity that he condensed into a 10-minute video.
Among the highlights: A sewer pipe replacement project last July that in reality took the better part of a month but thanks to the magic of technology passes by in a flash.
"It was just a way to see what was happening," Zakas said of the inspiration for the video.
Over 365 days — March 25, 2015 through March 25, 2016 — Zakas saved one picture an hour, every hour, and stitched together an image a day to create the video.
He didn't catch any burglars or dramatic car crashes, but was struck by the vibrancy on his quiet side street during all times of the day.
"It's a little slice of life ... the comings and goings in the neighborhood," Zakas said.
What caught his eye more than anything was the passing of the seasons, watching the landscape change from barren to lush back to barren. Snow came and went in the blink of an eye.
The camera turned out to serve a practical purpose too.
Last May, Zakas took a trip to Europe with his father.
"His parked his car at my place and we were able to keep an eye on the car from 5,000 miles away," Zakas said.
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