Project: Photographing Movement

I have had some experience with this side of the camera as we have three cats and I'm always trying to get photos of them when they are having their weird and wonderful moments.  However as much as I tried I couldn't get any or them to walk in a straight line repeatedly!  So I conscripted our security guard to help.  It took some explaining using sign language and my limited indonesian, but we got there in the end.

We set up outside the gate of our house, much to the amusement of the locals.  This was the first time that I had used a tripod here in Indonesia and it caused some interest even though I was only getting the security guard to walk back and forward.  Being watched by other people is something that I am not overly comfortable doing, but interestingly I very quickly went from being self-conscious to enjoying the situation and feeling very at ease.



1.  1/250 sec:  Although obvious that the subject is walking he is frozen in place and the picture does not convey movement.

2.  1/125 sec:  There is still no sense of movement within the photograph.

3. 1/90 sec: The subject is just beginning to have a sense of movement through the photograph - his left arm and right leg are blurred, but it still, in my opinion doesn't achieve movement.

4.  1/45 sec:  Out of all eight images this one would be my pick.  The only thing that is not moving is his right leg, the blurring of the rest of the body makes it feel as though he is walking through the frame.

5. 1/20 sec:  In this image, I feel that the shutter speed is too slow.  His left leg seems to be disappearing.















6.  1/10 sec:  Again subject is losing his left leg.

7. 1/4 sec:  Although I think that picture 4 is the best image to give the feeling of the subject walking through to another dimension

8. 1 sec:  Here the subject has taken on an ethereal, ghost-like quality.  It is impossible to tell what the subject.  The only clues are the disembodied hand and foot.
















I tried to take a similar picture recently in New York on 5th avenue.  The idea was to show the movement of the New York taxis as the pulled away from the traffic lights (see image below).  I realise now through this exercise that it would be impossible to get the full effect without using the tripod, even when using a VR lens.  I took a series of images but never really got the look that I was trying to achieve because it was impossible to keep the stationary parts of the scene sharp.  The image that came closest was shot at 1/30 second, but now I realise that it would need to be at least 1/15 or even 1/8 to get the movement that I wanted to achieve.