Sun Zoom

This update is all about returning to roots: both the roots of this blog (pictorialism), and the roots of many a tog's first experiments with creative photography - the sunset.

Few can resist the vibrant explosion of colour presented by a beautiful sunset, although there are regrettably a few cynics who look down on sunset photography due to its sheer popularity and the relative ease of capture (especially when the foreground is thrown into silhouette).
So I thought I would combine the humble sunset with another simple photographic technique: zooming.

All you need for zooming is a zoom lens that you can control manually. A telephoto or medium focal length zoom is probably best, though a wide angle zoom could also work. Most dSLR owners will have the medium zoom shipped with their camera body. 
Compact owners, if your camera allows you to operate the zoom controls whilst the shutter is released then you can try this too.

The idea is to zoom the lens in or out whilst taking the shot. To achieve this you will require a slow shutter speed - anything from about 1 second to 4 or 5 seconds. Since you are shooting a relatively bright scene, you will need to dial in the lowest ISO possible, and probably the smallest aperture possible. If that still does not give you the shutter speed required, try a neutral density filter, or even your polariser (which general swallows about 2 stops of light).
You do not need a tripod since the result image will be lovely and blurry anyway, but it does help if you stand in a stable position and perform a nice smooth zoom.

You can experiment with zooming in vs zooming out, different shutter speeds, zooming in and out, and even lateral movements while zooming.
The results are unlikely to win any Pulitzer prizes, but if you like simple pictorial art as much as I do, images created with this technique would look great as a large colourful canvas on your wall.

 

A Nose For Walton

On a trip to Walton-on-the-Naze to see some seals in the backwaters, I shot some blurry landscapes with the aim of experimenting with blur and impressionistic effects.
The first three are blends of multiple exposures shot with a 300mm lens handheld (so not pin sharp in the first place).
The second three were long-ish exposures from a moving train, the exposure being taken right down in post to increase contrast, saturation and drama.
This is the way I like to see life.

Water Wrackets

A trip to Nayland to shoot long exposures of water over rocks didn't come off quite as planned as recent rain meant the river level was too high, and the rocks were completely obscured. Still, we made lemonade...

Ebbtide

A windy day in Brightlingsea. I took my backup camera since swapping lenses in such conditions can be hazzardous. Took the tripod too but forgot to take the quick release plate (which was on the main camera), so what to do but more in-camera blur.
The technique works well with seascapes, bringing out their constant movement and chaos more readily than a frozen image will. Here I used gentle lateral panning and zooming.

The Trip

A trip to Fingringhoe where everything appeared to be against us - ok, not literally everything, but there was no skipper for the ferry, so we had to drive there, then after a glorious summer's day, the light turned flat. I therefore decided to play with some different blur techniques - panning, long exposure of moving subjects, zooming, and double exposure (1 sharp, 1 blurred - combined later in photoshop to add some vibrancy to an otherwise flat image).

Alice

Alice gazed through the looking glass and saw something real but not real. One of my passions is for imagery that exists somewhere between reality and fantasy - imagery that is both purposeful, yet not too prescriptive - imagery that leaves room for your imagination to work....

The Boat That Rocked

A second set from Harwich, and a return to experiments with blur.
This time the camera was firmly held on a tripod, and the subject was moving. A narrow apperture and ND filters assisted the long-ish exposures.

Nine

A mini post of two images, one old, one new. Different takes on the theme of crowds and movement. Both are long exposures.