Time-lapse photography is a great way to track the movement or growth of an object with pictures, rather than video. The general idea is to take a number of pictures, each spaced at exact intervals. In order to be precise, you can’t really do it by hand. Thus, you’ll need the help of a special piece of hardware called an intervalometer. This talks to your camera and tells it exactly when to snap each picture.

If you seek out one of these devices, you’ll notice that they are generally a bit bulky, which may or may not bother you. If it does, you always have the option of building your own. By following this guide, you can construct one that about the size of a 2.5mm stereo plug. It’s certainly not for the beginning DIY-er, but the end result is pretty cool. All you need to do is plug it into your DSLR and take two pictures. It sees how long you waiting between each, and will continue to take photos at the exact same pace (anywhere from 0.4 seconds up to 18 minutes apart.) You can’t beat the price either. The total cost for parts is just under $1.