def _plot_timelapse_lamp(ax, point_list, plot_points=True,
                         plot_lines=False, path_colors=None, **kwargs):
    """
    A helper function to plot the time lapse lamp points.

    Parameters
    ----------
    ax: matplotlib.Axes
        The axes to plot the points.
    point_list: list of numpy.array
        List of points organized by time step.
    plot_points: boolean
        Switch to indicate if the points should be plotted. Default value is
        True.
    plot_lines: boolean
        Switch to indicate if the lines connecting the points should be
        plotted. Default value is False.
    path_colors: list
        A list of RGBA colors to apply to the plotted elements (lines and
        points). An easy way to generate this is to use matplotlib's cm module.
    kwargs: other named arguments
        Other arguments to pass to ax.scatter and ax.plot

    Returns
    -------
    artists: tuple
        A tuple of 2 lists. The first list contains the artist added by the
        call to ax.scatter (if plot_points is True) and the second list
        contains the artists added by ax.plot (if plot_lines is True).
    """
    if not isinstance(point_list, list):
        point_list = [point_list]

    scatter_artists = []
    plot_artists = []
    for i, p in enumerate(point_list):
        x = p[:, 0]
        y = p[:, 1]
        pc = None
        pl = None
        if path_colors is not None:
            kwargs['c'] = path_colors[i]
        if plot_points:
            pc = ax.scatter(x, y, **kwargs)
        if plot_lines:
            pl = ax.plot(x, y, **kwargs)
        scatter_artists.append(pc)
        plot_artists.append(pl)
    return (scatter_artists, plot_artists)