timeragraphy

Julia Pugachevsky from Buzzfeed selected 21 beautiful timeras for an amazing article:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/juliapugachevsky/powerful-photos-that-literally-blend-two-time-periods-tog

And Valerie Paschall from DC Curbed announced the updates of the new Version 2 not forgetting about your wonderful timeras:

http://dc.curbed.com/archives/2014/07/timera-update-prompts-new-improved-dc-rephotography.php

How often do you walk or drive to work, school, university, gym, supermarket… etc.? It is quite likely that you say it happens at least five times a week. And you should be familiar with the feeling of being blocked in a traffic jam or waiting for your bus. Quite often it comes with nervousness to be late for the meeting or thoughts about your upcoming exam.

Now take a moment and see what is around you. The streets with their buildings, that little bakery on the left corner, the coffee shop where you usually buy your take away, the bridge you cross hundred times a month – whatever you can see! And now just imagine that those places existed long before you were born and might have been something else than what you see now. What was that house years ago? Why this street has such a strange name? What was the feeling of life back in the past?

Find old pictures of the places you are curious about and compare them with what you see today. You may be surprised to discover a lot of completely new.

Now you would probably ask: “why should I do it? I live today; the past is long gone so why should I be interested in that?” Feel the moment! See the progress! Feel that you are moving forward! Get this wonderful experience and literally “touch the time”! We cannot feel that the Earth is moving but it actually does. Be a part of the great engine!

This old photo of Moika River Emb. in St. Petersburg, Russia taken in 1905 revealed that the German Reformed Church (on the right) previously existed. The church was built in 1862-1865 for the Germans who resided at Gorokhovaya St. – an area close by. They usually came to St. Petersburg to work as craftsmen, pharmacists and bakers. 

Following the Revolutionary events in Russia in 1929 the church was closed and became a hall and 1939 it was rebuilt to the House of Culture. The spire was demolished and red bricks were plastered. The reconstruction resulted in a massive and monumental building which however looks abandoned today.

Timera image showing how this beautiful part of St. Petersburg would look if the church was still there:

And here you can see what the place looks today...

We are getting a lot of great timeras and would like to thank you for sharing your creativity with us. Timera users from all around the world upload original collages playing with old pics, art images and also entertaining with some up-to-date pictures producing amusing artworks.

We would like to share with you some ideas from our users on how to use Timera:

Here we go…

Viral “Now and Then” pictures taken on the go while you travel and visit other countries 

Timera user samtasker123

or just roam around your own city/town/village/garden/forest with your smartphone. What was it like before and how does it look now?

Timera user milton

Isn’t it cool to be in your collage?

Timera user fnarfnar

Ghosts are around us even if we don’t see them. We’re sure you can capture many of them with the Timera ghost camera!

Timera user Elina Ikola 

Our houses keep our history

Timera user Heikki Peltonen

and families make our history.

Timera user Charlotte Emily Haywood 

Cars have been our passion throughout the years.

Timera user Stella S.

Moskvich-Porsche hybrid inspiration.

Timera user Ришад Аллабердиев

If you like movies, show us which ones are your favourites!

Timera user milton

Share with us the creepy stuff which keeps you awake in the night.

Timera user craig230

Or show us and your friends who you really are...

Timera user pasha

Be closer to those you dream of, like this Marilyn Monroe on the lake next door

Timera user milton

Or even have a picture together.

Timera user zzzZz

And finally some photos could be compared with contemporary art pieces!

Timer user Chim Ting Chai

Create and share your window in time via timera

In this article we will try and give you some tips around using timera and maybe let you know about some features you didn’t know to get the best results when taking timeras.

Any timera starts with the selection of an old photograph. For this you can either go to the site or to the app.  There you will find many old photos which have been uploaded by our users.  Also, you can search by hashtag to find interesting pictures, as well as upload your own old photos.  Your own photos can be made visible to everyone or you can keep them private for your own persobal use.

Well, you're standing on the spot where an old photograph was taken. Start timera, open the map and select the desired photo.   Now you will find yourself looking through the old photo.

The first thing to do is to resize the old photo to give the same scale as the view you have today.  This may mean that you change your position, or distance from the subject or you just pinch and drag the old photo to match the desired position.

When aligning the old photo with the live camera feed a number of points need to be considered

Try and find lines that continue from today to the past.  These can be windows, trees, or building features

Look to see how the angles intersect.  Often you need to move left or right of your current position to get the angles to align.

Change the transparency of the old photo using the slider if you are having trouble picking out features

Don’t worry too much about getting the exact size or exact alignment when taking the picture.  Exact size and alignment can be fixed later on with the “nudge” screen.  Far more important when taking the photo is that you stand in the right location and the composition is good.

Regarding composition - Height is determined by the eye on the level of the surrounding objects.  Many times you see timeras with someone from today looking like a giant next to a person from the past…. or vice versa.  You my need to play with your subject to get the best results.

Interaction - Have fun with people today interacting with the past.  You may have people looking at something which no longer exists today or looking at someone from the past.

We should understand that the lenses used to create the old photos and those that in your smartphone are different, and each creates its own lens distortion. Sometimes it is best not to try and get the whole photo aligned but instead pick a section of the photo that aligns where you will place your time tunnel.

If you experiment and play with timera you will find that your expertise grows rapidly and soon you’ll be creating convincing timeras that will amaze the community.  Have fun !

Window in time from Finland.

Our users have given us loads of inspiration with their use of timera. We never imagined all the ways timera is being used. The following themes are ones which really caught our attention:

1 ) Traditional true mix of old and new photos – You can see many of these if you hit explore.

2) Mixing paintings with views from today. Not only historical paintings have been used giving really nice effects. These works are posted under the hashtag #partypaint. Take a look!

3) Fantasy themes, putting objects in places out of the ordinary. For example: “Titanic in St Petersburg .”

4) Mixing old and new photos, but not on the basis of geography , but on the principle of belonging to something. Here, for example is a timera of the metro: With these timeras you will also notice there is no tick in the eye watermark. This only appears when timeras are taken in the same geographic location as the old photo.

5) Fictional timeras . Crazy, funny, interesting stuff. These works can be found at the hashtag #play.

Every day more and more timeras and old photos are being added.

It was a year ago that I saw Sergey Larenkov’s work featured in the Daily Mail.  When I searched for more, I saw that it had gone viral worldwide.  While Sergey wouldn’t claim to be the only or the first person to do such work, his photos struck a chord with me.  Sergey’s work made me in some way connect with the past.

When you look at these kind of mashups of old and new, it gives you a unique feeling travel in time and space.

In the modern world we rarely have time to contemplate our surroundings, even more so in the smartphone era where people are constantly checking social networks and chatting with their friends.

These 2 factors were the inspiration to create timera.  The aim would be to create a mobile app that easily allowed people to look at the world like Sergey, or  think of another space around you, perhaps more interesting and unusual and share the experience with friends.

I quickly got together a team to produce a prototype and then went taking photos.  While the results were not spectacular, I was happy enough to share them with friends and the response was overwhelming.  I never had so many likes and reshares of any other photos. After this we pushed forward with development and reached out to Sergey.  Over lunch I showed him my results and he was very supportive and interested in the work.  Following the meeting it was natural to get Sergey on board with the team to help develop and produce interesting and exciting content.

6 months from starting development we went live with our Android version of timera.  We’ve been amazed by the enthusiasm of our users who are creating and sharing great work from around the world.