Motion.
I’ve tried to slow down my life and my photography of late. The idea of consistent posting to stay relevant is draining. The idea of shilling your work on a daily basis tends to get to you. The amount of people selling something is enormous. The noise our voices make in the online theaters are deafening. In one way this is a good thing – more artists are getting noticed. More people escaping the grind.
Motion in my photos.
For the past few months experimentation has been a large part of my photography. First with longer exposures. Different editing styles. The great thing about experimentation is that it invites more experimentation. The more doors you open the more doors you want to open. These discoveries are bursts of dopamine to anyone in an artistic field [IMO].
Armed with my XE-2, a 35mm lens and an old tripod which I bought for less than $7 USD (according to the exchange rate conversion) I went to work. Nothing super unique here. Just set your shutter speed to something at the slower end of the spectrum: 1/4 or 3/5 or even 1 second. Now loosen the part of the tripod which controls horizontal movement. Easier to swivel the camera from left to right.
What I love about these images are two-fold:
- The details you can still see in the motion if you look close enough. I could be wrong but I suspect the camera captures the windows first and then ‘layers’ the movement on top of them. Not sure if this is correct so if you have an understanding of this please let me know. I will also do some reading on this.
- The mixing of the colors in the blur. The transition from blue to orange, from yellow to white, these are interesting outcomes for me.
The effect in this image is purely accidental – I bumped the tripod and the movement created this “dip” in the motion. It makes me think of a marker pen being drawn across a page in an uneven line. The consistency in all the blurs is what makes it interesting.
I also tried moving the camera up and down. It looks okay but I’m not a big fan of this. On my next round of photo experiments I will tilt the camera in portrait mode and try the same movement but in a vertical plane. The movement should be smoother and give more “equal” transitions.
My favorite image from the set.
I love the details in this. The street light and the top of the tower in the upper part of the image. The details in each window. I am reminded of nuclear bomb testing images when I look at this. You’ll notice another slight dip in the trails – another ‘bump’ against the tripod. As you move towards the left it seems as if the image is coming apart.
tl;dr
I don’t have much to say but experiment.
Take different lenses, photos at different times of the day. Photos at night if you’re only used to daytime photography. If you’re stuck or want to try something else this is the best way to get good results. Throw caution to the wind in your experimentation.
Thanks for reading : )
PS
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