As the year draws to a close, it's time to reflect on the 12 months that have sped by with remarkable haste. That's easy for photographer Eirik Solheim, who set up his Canon 400D (a relatively low-cost digital SLR, also known as the Canon Digital Rebel XTi) and took this remarkable time-lapse sequence showing 2008 passing by in a mere 40 seconds. If that's too fast for you, he's also compiled a two-minute version.

Our question was, how did Eirik place that camera in exactly the same spot every day as he shot pics at regular intervals throughout 2008? Well, he didn't. He says, "I found a spot outside that gave more or less the same framing each time I placed my camera."

He stacked up all those frames in Photoshop, which has the ability to automatically align stacks of images. We had no idea Photoshop could do this so accurately! Next, he lined up the pictures in video editing software Final Cut Express, overlapping dissolves for that smooth effect. Beautiful!

Eirikso.com, via Neatorama