Pan, Motion and Zoom Blur Technique - Improve Your Creativity

You know sometimes when your in the field and things get slow; the animals are hiding, the weather is bad, or the images are just not there. Well, instead of packing your gear away, why not try something new and creative.

Recently, when I was in Yellowstone National Park, there was a few hours which were quite dead wildlife and landscape wise. Rather than hide, I decided to play around with a zoom blur using my Canon 70-200 f2.8 zoom lens. The results do not please everyone, however, this technique is well worth mastering and adding to your palette of skills.

So how is a zoom accomplished?

The technique is relatively easy, but results vary depending upon how fast or slow you manipulate the zoom on your lens and what combination of shutter speed, ISO and f stop you select.

1. First, switch your camera to M mode (manual mode).
2. Auto focus on a subject conducive to zooming (such as the trees in the image), then turn off auto focus once focus lock has been acquired (or use manual focus).
3. Next, ensure you have a relatively slow shutter speed. I prefer 1/25 or slower, so using a tripod is advantageous. It's important to have a slow shutter speed to allow time for you to zoom the lens while light is falling on the digital sensor. Play about with different settings to achieve the results and blur that you desire - The f stop is not that important, but obviously in well lit situations you will need a high f stop (ie f16) to enable a slow shutter speed.
4. Depress the shutter and while the lens is open smoothly zoom the lens. Depending on the effect you desire, you may want to zoom in or zoom out.

Have fun with the new technique and watch as you creativity increases.

Pan / Motion Blur

Animals move, and most species can move very fast when they want to.

Traditionally, the idea has been to capture the animal in the moment; in other words, the bird will be frozen in mid flight or the wolf will be frozen in mid stride. There is nothing wrong with this technique, however, the image won't show fluidity, movement, or speed.

To instil movement into another wise still subject can be tricky, but not impossible. The idea is to use a slow shutter speed and pan the camera and lens at the speed the animal is moving. I usually start left and move towards the right panning the camera as the animal moves. it's important to always follow through with the pan; do not stop halfway but follow the animal fully to the right to the end of the pan. How slow a shutter speed depends on how much you want the background blurred and whether you want additional movement in the animal. I would suggest starting out at 1/25th and going from there.

This will create a sharp image of the animal and blur the background. The image of the animal is sharp because the camera and lens are moving at more or less the exact speed of the animal as you pan. The blurred background instils movement.

Motion Blur

But, as with many things in life there are usually several subsets to the above rule. When photographing birds, I like the bird to be blurred somewhat as this implies power and speed to the image.

For example, I made several photographs of this Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) in Alaska. The sharp images we're nice, but they lacked motion; they appeared very flat and descriptive looking. By lowering the shutter speed and waiting for the bird to fly, I panned the camera and lens left to right. The shutter speed wasn't quite high enough to freeze the movement of the wings and body of the bird, and this created the appearance of movement. The pan/motion was quite fast and the shutter speed was 1/320th at f10 ISO 400.

Don't believe me - Go the park, find some pigeons or sea gulls and trial the technique.

New Blog is Here - update your bookmarks and links please

Well, after a lot of consideration I have decided to discontinue with Google Blogger and migrate all my posts to this custom Blog.  My main reason for doing this was because I was not satisfied with the narrow template that Google Blogger offered.  Nor was I satisfied with the way my photographs appeared on the web - they were always lacking contrast and seemed under saturated.  Apparently this is something that manifests itself when using Google Blogger.  A pity as search engines will pick up Google Blogger like a snap.

Over the next week or so I will complete the migration of data and images and finalise some of the set up features.  Thi will include a photo header and brand name icon.

I was keen to get the new Blog on the web so the spiders and robots can crawl all over it and do their thing.

For those of you who have linked to my old google blog site, I would appreciate it is you update your links to this site - THANK YOU.

Back To Home Base - Melbourne City and Hobart Tasmania

After a long and relatively uneventful drive I have hit Melbourne City.

Interesting, but almost to the day one a bit months ago, I was in a car whose driver was dodging falling ice from semi-trailers (USA trip). Now I am doing the same thing, but instead of ice, it's dust and rocks!

Now that I am back in Hobart, I have to find time to post process, market, research the next trip, add to this blog, update my website, miantain relationships, and a host of other important tasks.  When is there time to sleep in...........     :(

Wyperfeld National Park, Victoria

After visiting Hammond in the attempt to find some insulator bowls, but failing dismally to find any, I debated whether to return to a known Port Augusta location for birds or continue to an unknown conservation park called Black Rock Conservation Park.

I researched the net but could not mention about the park, so decided as I was in the district (well sort of) I would drive the 100 mile to check it out. After becoming lost on remote desert roads, I eventually found the park which had been gazetted to protect a a species of mallee tree. Unfortunately for me, bird life was nil - other than annoying birds I call "nats" that move around in large groups, make a lot of noise and push other birds away.

I then made an incorerct decision, deciding to head further south - I should have returned to Port August 150 mile north for a known bird location. Put off quite a bit that I had lost an afternoon and morning shoot at a known location, I camped the evening under a bridge before calling base to get some information on Wyperfield National Park.

Wyperfield is sort of on the way back to Melbourne and I had heard on the elusive "grapevine" that there were quite a few birds in the area, due to the recent wildfires that had been in Victoria (the birds had migrated to Wyperfield which was undamaged in the fires). So I'm transiting ASAP to this area to try and catch the evening and morning light. Tomorrow (Monday Australia time) I have to drive to Melbourne to catch the Spirit of Tasmania back to Tasmania (the convict island). Will I get there in time to work out a shooting location and catch the light - my time seems to always chasing the light.......

No Water

Seems that the water I was "told" was in the park is no longer there! Despite this the mulga scrub is very appealing and as I am the only person here - all the better.

Bird life is plentiful, despite there being no water in the several dry marshes and lakes. Galahs, white cockatoos, mulga parrots, ring-necked parrots, kites, tree creepers and emu to mention a few. Unfortunately, seeing birds and photographing birds are two different things. The location is so sparse that I need more than a night and a morning to get any decent images of birds from this area - maybe next time!

Owl

I did have one interesting sighting. I was focussed on a red capped robin when I noticed two eyes pearing at me from a hollow. As soon as I looked at the eyes, they quickly dissappeared down into the tree hollow like an elevator going to ground. I set up and waited, and waited, and waited. I waited for 2 hours and finally I saw the eyes again along with the telltail mouth of an owl. But, as soon as I depressed the shutter, the noise of the camera shutter truggering was enough to press the ground button and the eyes immediately disappeared again.

I was now out of time - so the eyes will have to wait until I return to photograph them.

Travelling South - Quorn and Warren Gorge

An overcast morning today with low light. Despite this I went to the talus slope to see what was happening. Observed several yellow foots returning to the slope from the water course, however, as the light was dim and nothing really captured my imagination, I just watched rather than take photographs.

Broke camp and decided as it was overcast to drive further along the track to see what was around the next bend, then the next, and still the next bend!

Sighted a wallaroo feeding so grabbed a few snaps. I began thinking it would be nice to see some ring-necked parrots; I had heard their calls several times but had not sighted one. Then, as I drove around the bend I saw 5 individuals feeding on grass seeds. Driving quickly off the track, I grabbed my tripod and 500/4 and began madly taking images. After 30 minutes or so the parrots decided to move on, and as I continue the drive, I see another wallarro and then another black phase wallaro, a female grey kangaroo, and then two emus! The last morning and everything is out and about!

Traveling out of the park, I noticed a road kill ahead (kangaroo). But more interesting was the wedge-tailed eagle that was feeding on the deceased animal. Wedge tails are quite rare these days and seeing one up close is quite privilege. Unfortunately, privilege or not, this eagle wanted nothing to do with me as it flew quickly away when I approached. I removed the road kill to the edge of the road and a quick search found the eagle "pretending" to hide in a tree about as mile out. I hiked out, but at 1/2 a mile it saw me and scarpered.

Maybe there is something to the pre-visualization thing. In the US, I was thinking of a coyote and one appeared. The same happened with a bobcat in Yellowstone.

Made my way back to Quorn to meet with a local semi-official who had agreed that I could photograph the inside of an old building. The building was a haberdashery shop that had been established in 1916, and had not been renovated since. The old wooden tables, flying fox money belts, wooden chairs and shelving were still in place - like a trip back in time.....

22 mile out of Quorn is Warren Gorge, my second yellow foot location. On a previous trip, I had sighted several adults in the gorge and I was keen to photograph them again.

Unfortunately, I found no yellow foots or evidence that any were in the area. However, I did notice that their favourite food was blooming high on the cliff, therefore, can only assume "why travel when you can eat at home", meaning the wallabies were staying on high ground rather than waste energy coming to gorge floor. Pity, as the afternoon light was exceptionally good as the iron oxides in the gorge wall shone brightly.

I camped at the end of the gorge. In the morning I intend to travel back to Port Augusta to spend an evening and morning photographing birds, before moving on to Hammond Ghost Town and eventually, east to Bordertown and Melbourne.