If you have any questions about anything that came up in the talk, please ask. I’ll do my very best to answer any questions.

So, here’s how to do it:

1. Create a directory /Applications/autocamcapture – this is where the executables we’ll be using will live.

2. Create a directory ~/Pictures/autocamcapture – this is where the automatically generated images will live.

3. Download CamCapture and put the executable in /Applications/autocamcapture

4. Open the “Script Editor” application and enter the following:

   set commandPath to "/Applications/autocamcapture/"
   set commandName to "camcapture"
   set outputImagePath to "~/Pictures/autocamcapture/"
   set outputImageName to do shell script "date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S"
   do shell script commandPath & commandName & " " & outputImagePath & outputImageName
   

5. Save this file as /Applications/autocamcapture/autocamcapture.scpt

6. Open a terminal window, and run crontab -e. Add the following cron job:

   *      *       *       *       *       osascript /Applications/autocamcapture/autocamcapture.scpt
   

7. Now, once a minute a cron job will be fired off and a picture will be taken and placed in your ~/Pictures/autocamcapture directory.

The obvious question to go with this is “but why would you do this?”. Frankly, originally the answer was just “because I can”. I carried on doing it though because in amongst all the dross that inevitably gets taken some interesting photos do occur. Try it out yourself, you might snap something fun.