I took Razz and Chris’s advice and went out experimenting yesterday. In search of motion, I took a full 4GB card worth of images on a intermittently sunny but very windy day.
I parked along side roads and took photos of cars. I parked above roads and took pictures of cars. I parked looking up at an interstate and took pictures of passing trucks.
I took me some motion photos, people, but My Motion Mastery (The 3 M’s) is no where in sight. This is hard to do.
About 500 yards from my house, I stopped and took the last shot of the day out my side window of this tree. Did I say it was a windy day?
As it turns out, it is the only image I am keeping from the whole day but what I learned would fill a chest.
If you want to follow along with my motion mastery efforts (at this point, I am a master blur-er):
You can check with this link periodically as I update this folder when I have a new image.
#1 thing I learned so far is that it would have cost me a bloody fortune to “learn” motion photography in the old analog world.
I am going to two Halloween parades tomorrow morning. One is 8 years old and the other is five years old. Their respective classes will be marching around their school in their Halloween costumes.
Another test of my motion mastery coming up.
©Pat Coakley 2008
PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION
PS. My Monotone template is not working (!) and in order to view past entries you have to click “Archive” on the top of this page. Apologies.
This one was worth the entire 4GB.
From the stamp size image that begins to upload, it had the look of a tropical palm tree.
This would be a great image for Halloween Party invitations, which would fit in nicely to your burgeoning industry.
WoW, a palindromic shout out- I really like everything about this one.
Beautiful shot.
You might want to try some slow shutter speed shots with flash at the parades.
Shoot at about a quarter of a second with the flash, and pan in the opposite direction to the movement of your subject (that way the blurs will trail behind your subject).
I once won a trip to Mexico for 2 with a shot using this method.
If you want to see the shot here’s a link.
http://blog.allthedumbthings.com/2007/05/16/how-i-won-a-trip-to-mexico-vancover-bc-canada/
I love slow shutter speed with flash. Anyway, Pat, I will now have to try this experimentof yours. Inspired by you, I took some blurry pics this weekend before it started raining.
PS Your parking lot photos are awesome. Loved them all!
Bonnie, I tried to duplicate this shot yesterday and it didn’t work! My chest full of knowledge is expanding, I can tell you that. I have to say whenever I see a Fed Ex Truck my heart quickens. It is my choice of truck because I can tell whether I got it in focus from the viewfinder because of the large Logo!!
Razz: You know I remember reading this post of yours and trying that panning in the opposite direction…of course, I don’t think my shutter speed was low and I didn’t have a flash, but other than that I did just what you told me!! Honestly, I have this habit of not reading the manual when I get new techno things and that doesn’t work out well, either. My problem with the parade in full daylight is that I’ve had overexposure problems when I’ve taken shots in good lighting situations. The 85mm lens particularly That only goes to 16 f stop. I googled this whole motion photography and they say buying a neutral density filter helps with this? Anyway, don’t tell anyone, but I don’t have a flash. Thanks for your help! (PS. There’s a nice little camera store near the school. Oh, I suppose a flash wouldn’t break me, now would it?)
Conni, oh, come and join the motion madness! It’s funny, today I woke up and thought, “Oh, I hope it’s windy!!” It’s funny how you begin to look at your world differently. I look forward to see your blurry photos. I don’t want to be the only one!
I don’t have a flash any more either.
I guess you’ve thought about using your lowest ISO; so, do you have a polarising filter?
If so, use that. Make sure you buy a flash that communicates with your camera (so it compensates for the filter automatically). If you buy the same brand as your camera, you should be O.K.
Don’t forget that flashes don’t work over very far distances when you use small f stops, so make sure you’re pretty close to your subject.
Give it a try any way and good luck.
I really like it! Fantastic!
BTW – I’ve framed and hung the “Crying in the Rain Can Be Beautiful” card you sent me. Very nice I must say! Thanks again!
Razz, I passed on the flash but ordered a neutral density filter. My polarizing filter doesn’t fit the 85mm. The wide angle lens nor the 100mm gives me the overexposure problem that the 85 does. That 16 on the 85 is the problem. Yes, I had the lowest ISO but I did read somewhere in the manual that I could change it to a 50 ISO if I did something or added something…See, reading the manual would really, really be a good idea.
S.Le: Thanks and I’m glad the card lives on! I keep adding to the car series, rain or shine. In fac, just this morning I accidentally got some very interesting shots. We’ll see if I still like tomorrow morning. That’s my test cuz sometimes I get unduly over the top over and image and then the next day go, “What was I thinking?”