Back in the fall, my colleague Jenna Cho wanted to do a video story about the crew from Erik Block Design-Build. They were going to be building a post-and-beam barn in Lyme. Problem was, construction had barely started, and we needed the story for the paper sooner rather than later. In brainstorming ideas for the video, we thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if we could film the entire construction process and present it as a time lapse.?”

These types of conversations are how a lot of good ideas get started. After thinking over the logistics for a bit, I figured “why not?” It took a bit of figuring with the builders and the homeowners, but we found a spot on the lawn for a Nikon D2hs on a tripod. I put on a rain cover, fortified it with a trash bag and gaffers tape, ran an extension cord over to the house, and set the camera to capture a frame every 20 minutes.

The wind knocked the camera over once, so we had to add wooden stakes to hold it down, but the rig survived all the rain and snow we had this winter. Builders Erik and Haldan Block came in to provide some commentary, and Rick Koster wrote a score on guitar.

What I had originally envisioned as a quick video of a barn going up turned into a longer project. What goes on around the barn: the changing leaves, the piling snow and eventual thaw, the passing of the sun, the moon and stars, ends up being as interesting as the barn itself.

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