Ephemeros for
Seasonal Change & Phenology
Leaf-out, bloom, harvest, leaf-fall — the calendar of nature, photographed on repeat.
Pick a fixed viewpoint
A “spot” is a documented frame — coordinates, compass heading and tilt — that anyone can find again.
Line up with the ghost
The previous photo floats over your camera so every capture matches the original framing exactly.
Watch change unfold
Aligned photos become a timelapse — and an open, research-grade record of how the place changes.
Phenology — the timing of natural events — is one of the most sensitive indicators of a changing climate. When does the oak leaf out? When does the orchard blossom? When does the hillside turn?
Those questions are answered by dates, and dates are exactly what an Ephemeros series provides. A spot pointed at a single tree, a hedgerow or a hillside becomes a phenological instrument: the aligned timelapse shows each year's green-up and senescence, and every frame carries its capture timestamp.
Why aligned photos matter here
Phenology lives in subtle differences — a canopy 10% greener, blossom a week earlier. Aligned frames make those differences directly comparable year over year, something hand-held snapshots can't offer.
Good phenology spots
A landmark tree in a park · an orchard row · a wildflower meadow · a vineyard slope · the treeline view where autumn colour sweeps downhill.
One photo a week for a year produces something quietly spectacular. Five years in, it's a dataset.
Data for researchers
More than pictures: every photo ships with its metadata
Alongside the aligned image series, the Ephemeros Researcher API exports the context each frame was captured in — ready for analysis, no scraping required.
Position & orientation
Precise coordinates, altitude, compass heading, pitch and roll for every spot and photo.
Meteorological context
Temperature, humidity, air pressure, cloud cover, precipitation and wind at the capture hour, matched to each photo's time and place.
Timestamps
Exact capture times — in-app camera only, so dates are trustworthy, not gallery-import guesses.
Aligned renditions
Photos registered onto each spot's baseline frame, each with an alignment quality score.
Dataset exports
Bulk ZIP exports per spot or region — original and/or aligned imagery plus a machine-readable manifest.
Moderated & attributed
Every photo is human-reviewed before publication, with content tags and contributor attribution.
See it in motion
Real spots from the Ephemeros community — each animation is built from aligned repeat photos.
Start recording change today
The best time to take the first photo was years ago. The second-best time is now — and every photo after that gets more valuable.
Spreading the word? Get the printable QR poster (PDF) for noticeboards, trailheads and meetups.
