Scenic Chronicles

Scenic Chronicles is the idea of taking a series of pictures of the same scene over time. This allows us to look at the significant changes that occur through the seasons as well as smaller changes from other effects of growth, decay, and outside impact. If water is in the scene, we may get to see changes to water level, flow, or current. We get to see which plants dominate at what point in the year.

Hints and Tips

Selecting a Scene

In one sense, any scene will do but a few things that I've learned can be helpful to get multiple pictures of a scene and to have the pictures be comparable.

Pick a location based on your interest and curiosity. If it isn't something you care about, you won't likely pursue it.
Pick a location where you are going to go or are willing to go on a regular basis. So if it is a location that requires you to hike in 8 miles and back each time, that is a more significant commitment than your backyard.
Pick a location that you can get to in all the seasons. The trail head you drive to on seasonal road that is closed in winter might not be a great choice.
Think about how the scene might look at different times of the year. Will trees with foliage block your view?
Think about how the scene might look at different times of the day. Will you be shooting into the sun at times? You could commit to taking the picture at the same time of day (solar-wise).

Getting the Picture

What you plan to do with the series is a factor to how precise you want to be in getting the same image each time. This can be a challenge.

Look for a landmark where you can stand in the same spot each time. A tree, a post, a big rock. Realize that a root or rock might be covered at times of the year.
Use the same camera and camera settings when possible.
Find some permanent objects to use as guides, again remembering what might be hidden by snow or branches that might be bent down by leaves or snow.
Most cameras allow you to turn on guidelines such as rule-of-thirds. I use these to line up the picture more consistently.
Consider framing the picture larger than you'll want. This gives you room to crop if you want to line things up later.
Having objects both close and far away can add perspective to the photo, but also makes it more difficult to line up the exact picture each time.
You could use a tripod or hiking pole to ensure same height each time. Or perhaps a fence post you can set camera on top.
I use a form of flash card. I have a picture of the scene printed out with the guide lines drawn on it. I actually laminate these and take them with me to remind of how to frame the image. They are about the size of a playing card so fit in pocket easily.
Consider taking notes. I know I can't depend on my memory, so a brief note about anything special that day or even something like, "had heavy rain this past week." Take a note of anything unique that might help understand changes you'll see later. Time of day could be helpful, but most cameras capture that in the image.

Adjusting the Pictures

Unless you have some fixed physical device you won't have images that align exactly. There are a couple of approaches. that can be used to help line things up.

Some photo editing software has a feature called 'stacking' or perhaps 'focus stacking'. This is often used for tripod photography where you take a series of photos all in one shooting but where you focus at a different spot for each image. Focus stacking then allows you to combine those pictures and blend the focused parts together into one final image. In that process the software attempts to align individual images. You could use that and then instead of exporting the final combined image, export the individual ones. My experience has been, for this to be efficient you need images that are very close to start.
Another approach is to use your image editing software and overlay the multiple images. I select one that I think is what I was really attempting to capture and make that the base. Then for each subsequent image, I overlay it on the base. To be able to see both at once, I lower the opacity of the new image (layer) and then move it around to align a keep spot in the image. Usually this involves just moving along the x or y axises. However, if for some reason I wasn't at the same distance from the subject. I might have to resize the overlaying image. Also, if you did not keep camera level you may have to rotate slightly. I repeat this process for each image (layer). Since this will result in the images being outside the original dimensions, I then crop the canvas, taking care that the crop is within each of the layers. And then I export them individually. This cropping step is why I recommend the original images be larger than you think you'll want.

Avoiding The Number One Mistake

This is meant to be fun and interesting, so don't let it become a burden or "work". If you set out wanting to get a picture once a week, don't beat yourself up if you miss a week. Just get there the next time.