Time lapse video captures Harrogate man Cory McLeod growing up with a photo a day over 30 years

From the day he was born his father Ian took his picture every day. When he turned 21, the resulting time-lapse movie burst onto YouTube to be seen by some 6.6m people.

Now, having marked his 30th birthday, a new film has just been released capturing Cory's intervening years in eight-and-a-half minutes. And with it, pre-orders for a book to tell the full story.

From a tiny baby with a sprout of black hair to a fresh-faced boy and a cheeky teen - and now living in Dubai - his dad's "daft" art project was to capture Cory's whole life. By the time he was old enough to stop, Cory realised he just might regret it.

"It was my dad's project - I just had to do it," he said. "I'd be going to a friend's house after school and he would drive over. On school trips he'd ask the teachers to take a camera.

"I didn't realise the vision he had until the video came out. Now I appreciate it. I just hope my dad gets the credit for that imagination. Back in 1991, who could have thought it?"

Ian McLeod's time-lapse video, 21 Years, was published in 2012 for Cory's 21st birthday. It went viral - watched around the world and with the family making media appearances from CBS America to Australia - it proved a particular hit in Japan.

Cory is now living in Dubai, where he works in events. He has travelled the world - some 62 countries - but still takes a picture a day.

These days it's a selfie on a mobile phone. When it began, it was on a camera with windup film. There is still a dedicated cupboard at his parents' home in Harrogate, filled with printed photographs of Cory's face.

"My parents are both artistic people - they met at art college," he said. "It started in 1991 when my dad, after a glass of wine, had this idea to take a photograph every day.

"It was just for a year or two - it was meant to be a flick book. Then decades later YouTube arrived. Now 6.6m people have watched me grow up. They do say they feel like they know me."

In the first time-lapse video, 21 Years, Cory can be seen as a baby, with that shock of black hair, before he morphs into a toddler.

As he grows, he is pictured in school uniform, first at Oatlands and then at St Aidan's, and in football kits with local clubs.

Haircuts change, as does the shape of his face, but his eyes remain the same. As a more sullen teenager, it's Leeds Festival, then house music festivals in Belgium, before film studies at university.

It hasn't always worked out. Once a whole month was lost when the film wasn't winding. Another time the camera was stolen. Once, it slipped past midnight before they realised, but his father refused to cheat. By the time Cory was 21 there were 7,500 images, in 71 albums.

“It’s like I’m on the Truman Show," he said at the time.

A decade on, and it hasn't always been easy. With 30 Years: Cory Every Day, the new video takes in images as he grows to adulthood, maturing, taking up running, and trying a beard.

Rather than school trips it's visits to Machu Piccu in Peru. Everest, the Sydney Opera House. His next stop is Socotra Island off the coast of Yemen.

The book 30 Years: A Life Lived Every Day, which has taken two-and-a-half years to write, is a deep dive into the stories behind the photographs.

There's the weeks Cory spent driving a tuktuk in India, and the time he climbed Mt Fuji with a broken rib. Daring escapades at Everest, and running the world's longest desert marathon.

There is also a darker side to the story, detailing relationship breakups, being held at gunpoint, as well as a battle with anxiety.

"Even looking through the photographs I can come across one and remember how I was feeling that day," said Cory.

"You can see all the pictures, but you don't see the whole story. It may be a lot darker than people think.

"There are issues with anxiety. It's asking 'what is this and why am I doing it? And then seeing the finished product - and that appreciation of my parents.

"It's a full life story. It's the day-to-day and every day - excuse the pun. There is lots that people can relate to in some way."

And as he looks back at the once "annoying" art project that captured his whole life, Cory concluded: "It is cool, to be the first person to have their whole life on video. One day I'll have to get the kids to upload the last one."

The book 30 Years: A Life Lived Every Day, is to be published in coming months. Pre-order now via linktr.ee/coryeveryday

The full eight-and-a-half minute film 30 Years: Cory Every Day, released in February, can be seen at https://youtu.be/655A3dzVfRc