Timelapse photo captures worm's beauty

A stunning time lapse image of glow worms at Waipu Caves earned Jordan Poste an award at the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year contest. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Spending 40 hours camped in a cave in the name of art isn't everybody's idea of fun.

But it has earned Jordan Poste a prize in the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year contest for his timelapse image of glow worms in Waipu Caves.

Mr Poste won the Timelapse category in the New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year awards, which is widely recognised as New Zealand's most coveted photography award.

Twenty-eight finalists were selected from more than 5800 entries. The top prize, New Zealand Geographic Photographer of the Year 2015, was won by Jason Hosking.

It was third time lucky for Wellingtonian Mr Poste when it came to realising his dream of creating a timelapse of glow worms in Waipu Caves.

His first attempt ended in battery failure and light contamination by a red camera LED. The next time, the cave was busy with tourists and water seeped into his lens.

Finally, during a 40-hour effort in May this year, Mr Poste succeeded, sleeping at 30-minute intervals on an air mattress and waking to check the camera as it moved millimetre by millimetre.

Each frame is an exposure of 30 seconds or more, so every 10 seconds of video took him more than two hours to shoot.

Originally from Canada, Mr Poste and his partner - who is from Nova Scotia and wanted to go to the Caledonian Highland Games - visited Waipu last Christmas.