How Mushroom Growth Timelapses Are Filmed

Legendary director Louie Schwartzberg of Fantastic Fungi sat down with Wired to talk about his incredible timelapse work with mushrooms and other facets of nature. Schwartzberg spoke passionately about frame rates, the environments he creates, and the equipment that he uses. He also got rather philosophical about the work he does and the moments that he captures on film.

This reality of, you know, real-time human point of view is not the only point of view. And that’s really the beauty of cameras and time-lapse cinematography, it’s actually a time machine.

Schwartzberg also explained that nature sets an example for the rest of us.

What I’m really engaged with is really trying to understand the intelligence of nature and how we can live in harmony with it. And that means at times using, you know, a time-lapse camera to be able to observe it in their timeframe. It’s a shared economy under the ground where nutrients and food are shared for ecosystems to flourish without greed. And I personally believe that should be the model for how we should live our lives