Over the weekend I went to Seattle for a little shopping and while Sheila was browsing bead stores (she makes amazing jewelry), I took pictures around the stores. At our last stop I was playing with small apertures for some landscapes (f/16 to be exact). I wasn’t really getting what I was looking for so after shooting a few other things, I decided to take a picture of an interesting light pole on the street and got this:
Well “wow” was the next thing out of my mouth.
I have been playing with motion blurs and trying to do them in full manual mode and having a tough time with the exposure settings. This was in aperture priority and well I was amazed at the results.
Yes, if I had taken a class, read more, asked around more I would probably have learned this sooner, but I didn’t I discovered it by accident. I think discovering things by accident is way more fun, even more satisfying than just being told how to do it. Now I have more insight into how to compose and take pictures. I understand a little more about the balance of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. Now I’m ready to experiment more.
Here is a slide show of the whole motion blurred set from that street:
Tomorrow is BlogActionDay and I intend on doing a photo essay on the subject of poverty. I’m not going to wander to the Downtown Eastside either, I’m going to look for poverty in the places where you wouldn’t expect it.
That will certainly be fun.
Tris Hussey is a writer, teacher, blogger, and speaker on all facets of Internet life, WordPress, and social media. He is the author of Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Blogging Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro and Using WordPress.
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That picture is great! Can’t wait to see the results of your photo essay from Blog Action day. I wasn’t aware that existed! Do you have any pictures of Sheila’s jewelry, or does she have a web site?
MLDina´s last blog post..MarketLeverage TV 10/13/08 Your Source For Affiliate News
Great shot. As you learned, the hard part is not figuring out how, but instead the timing of the shot. With that pole, you have to time it perfectly to get the car like that. The other shots are nice, but that one is perfect because the pole is centered on the car’s blur. Also, the wheels look really cool with the specular reflection making that nice pattern.
Hint: With digital cameras, shoot a wider frame and crop to center/align the blur so you don’t have to get it perfect.
Neat find. Always fun to experiment and make new discoveries. A similar technique is panning, where you follow the car and the background takes a nice blur.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremytanner/979820170/
Jeremy
Jeremy Tanner´s last blog post..Be Different
@Dina Thank you! Sheila will have a site soon and will be selling her wares on Etsy. Meaning I have to take the pictures…
@Brad the funny thing is the shot was all luck. I didn’t notice the car at all. I was just shooting the pole!
Yes, cropping can do amazing things to get the shot you really wanted (or saw in the shot later).
Let me know when your pictures are up on her site.
I love fashion jewelry, may have to pick some up.
MLDina´s last blog post..MarketLeverage TV 10/13/08 Your Source For Affiliate News
Count on it Dina. I’ll tweet and post about it here.