Motion

I sat on the train today, sweeping through the rural landscape and watched gusts of wind ripple the heads of the cereal crops in waves across the fields. I find that motion fascinating. So how do you use "still" photography to capture motion. A familiar topic this for anyone sitting the New York Institute of Photography course!

There are three ways (at least) of expressing motion.

1) Stop the motion - catch something that obviously is moving fast at the most "obviously moving" part of its motion eg a ball at the top of it's bounce or a gymnast in the air. I use this in my sports photography - ball in the air, feet off the ground. It's literal and this is the sort of things newspapers want.

2) Panning - now this is fun! But it can be difficult. You need a slowish shutter speed and you need to move the camera at the same speed as the subject. This way the subject is clear and in focus but you get a directional blur in the direction of movement. The difficult part is matching your pan speed to be exactly that of the subject -it takes practice!

3) Slow shutter speed to express motion - I find this the most rewarding. Here is an example of how (last year) I tried to show the rippling, swaying effect of the wind on the crops. I didn't quite get the feeling from this image that I was after, but I think it does illustrate the sway and I find it interesting and a good example of using shutter speeds to give a creative interpretation.

If you've some good examples of expressive motion, please comment with a link!

Family Snaps

So, what is the line between a family snap and a fine art print?

Today was my daughters 5th birthday and I snapped away merrily as she opened her gifts and had a whale of a time. But still I couldn't help myself, I put a wide angle lens on and shot up from the floor, I experimented with flash and with natural light, I missed a shot and asked her to pick the toy up again and look happy. What I didn't do was to sit back and relax and enjoy her happiness... I had planned to, but my wife asked for one picture and I was off.

So often on holiday, we stop the car to get a shot or we go to places because I know there will be something "worth" photographing and always, always, I am hoping to get the fine art shot that will make me proud of myself.

When I shake off the pretensious photographer/artist that lives in my head I feel guilty if I've just snapped a picture and often I'm too embarressed at the poor quality to ever show anyone the results. This worries me. Photography should be fun and I have started to resent taking record shots of family happy times because they are not artistic enough. What should I do?

Well, I have changed my workflow. I now take my art shots and save them as RAW, save the converted jpg and then save the processed image of the best ones - these go in my portfolio. The family snaps are saved only to jpeg and go in a family album. By making a distinction and seperating my fields of photography I can relax and enjoy each style for what it is.

So, what IS the line between a family snap and a fine art print? In my book it's all to do with how much thought I put into the shot and ultimately which folder it ends up in on my PC.

How to Get Inspired...

Look at the light! There are dark moody clouds, sunbeams and a magical glow, all I've got to do is find a subject...

For a couple of years I've been trawling around the Bathgate Hills in West Lothian to carry out my landscape photography - I think I've pretty much shot everything now and frankly it's becoming stale. So when I see great light I get dejected as there's nothing new to shoot!

Last weekend however, I trudged off to the car with my whole set of kit and went for a drive. The roads up there are often single track and as ever, I had to pull into a lay by to let a tractor past. As I waited, my eye's fell onto the verge side plants...hmmmm.... Out I got, macro lens attached to my 40D, and started snapping. before I knew it I had taken 30 shots in 20 minutes. there were tons of subjects and I was having a great time. I spent the next 2 hours driving from lay by to lay by, shooting everything within 20 yards of the car. As I did so I started to look up and see shots that I had not noticed before. Now, like 2 years ago, I can't wait top get back up into the Bathgate Hills again.

Summer, summer, summer

Summer is here - What better time to start a blog? Well, in Scotland , early summer can mean humid conditions, lush greens in the trees, inky blue clouds and frequent downpours. so here is a picture that "feels" like summer to me. Taken in my parents garden yesterday after a lovely dinner of pork cutlets and roast potatoes - yummy!

Flower and plant photography has never been something to light my fire, but as I am progressing in my skills as a photographer I am finding that everything is becoming an interesting subject to me. This change of attitude has opened up a new world to me and revitalised a few of my old photography locations. More on that shortly!