Stunning Pacific Northwest Time-Lapse Video Shows Beauty Of Oregon, Washington [Video]

It took more than a year, 260,000 images, and 6.3 terabytes of hard drive space, but photographer John Ecklund has perfectly captured the stunning beauty of the Pacific Northwest in a time-lapse video.

The video, which Ecklund completed in August, has even garnered the praise of Tom Lowe, one of the pioneers of time-lapse videos, reports Grind TV.

The video includes scenes like a river of clouds rushing over snow-capped mountains, shadows across grassy hillsides, an ocean of stars over Crater Lake, and images of the Milky Way painted over the night sky. Eklund wrote on his Vimeo page:

“I choose to shoot locations that appeal to the way I would like to interpret the story of time. Here in the Pacific Northwest, there are endless opportunities to document the magnificence of the world around us. I have discovered that when time is the storyteller, a special kind of truth emerges.”

Ecklund stated that the images were shot at Crater Lake, Mount Shiksan, Mount Bachelor, Mount St. Helens, Oregon’s Badlands, Painted Hills, Cape Kiwanda, Mount Hood, Lost Lake, and Cannon Beach — all of which are picturesque representations of Oregon and Washington.

The Smithsonian notes that Ecklund spoke with them about the creation of his Pacific Northwest time-lapse video, saying that he originally got into landscape photography because of his desire to “capture the beauty in nature.” One day he was perusing YouTube and found a video posted by user Mockmoon, who was also a photographer and captured stunning photos of the stars and the Milky Way in time-lapse videos. Ecklund stated:

“After discovering timelapse photography, I viewed the typical landscape photography as static. With timelapse photography, it’s more dynamic. It captures the movement and changes in light that happens constantly in nature.”

Check out the beautiful Pacific Northwest time-lapse video below: