FOR two and a half years, one photographer has been keeping a close eye on the development of the new South West College (SWC) Erne Campus building.

The building – that is on course to welcome students to the new campus in September – looms large at the old Erne Hospital site, and certainly catches the eye.

Colin Williams Photography, from Co. Down, has been documenting the construction of the new college campus from St. Macartan’s Cathedral with a timelapse camera system.

“Way back at the end of 2016, Tracey Bros. had just been awarded the tender to build a college for the South West, known as ‘the Erne project’,” explained Colin.

“Part of the commercial tender was to document the complete construction process using timelapse photography – a genre of the arts that is not too common in Northern Ireland.

“It’s very much a time-consuming process, made even more complicated by the fact that a camera is to be positioned at one location for the entirety of the building process, to ensure full coverage from start to finish.

“That same camera is to take one photograph several times per hour, per day, every day, without fail.”

After speaking to Colin, Tracey Bros. awarded the job to him, and every day for the next 30 months photographs were taken of the SWC building progress from the church tower at St. Macartin’s.

‘Many challenges stood ahead’

“The tower, which stands 150 feet tall and overlooks the construction site, was perfect, but many challenges stood ahead in getting a camera to the tower, providing a rigid mounting system, a means of power, and a way to retrieve the photos without touching the camera.”

A small portable camera mount was designed by the team at Colin Williams Photography, with electricity provided by the cathedral.

A 4G mobile network modem was designed to connect the camera to the local cellular network.

After each image was taken, the camera would send the image to a modem, which in turn would then send it via 4G to a secure Amazon database.

After four trips up to the church tower, and a two-hour set-up process, the camera was ready, and it stood on the tower through all seasons and weather for nearly three years, dutifully watching the campus rise from a muddy field to a gleaming campus.

With construction now complete and the equipment removed from St. Macartin’s, it is now time to sift through approximately 65,000 SWC photos that the camera captured.

“Those photos will be added to computers, where every image will be viewed. Photos which have been spoilt with raindrops, mist, fog snow and bird tails etc will be deleted, and the remainder will be edited into a timelapse video.

“The video, which is thought will be about two minutes long, will show construction from day one.

“We also have a selection of photos from the camera which look absolutely amazing,” added Colin.

You can see a selection of the 65,000 or so photos here, tracing the new SWC Erne Campus from the initial ground works through the construction of a shell, right up to the all-but-finished campus that stands proudly in Enniskillen today.