Saturday 30 October 2010

Experiments In Light and Motion

Pretentious title, oh yes, but not a pretentious subject. There are all kinds of arguments among “serious” photographers, for and against digital cameras, but as I don’t fit into the serious category I won’t be going into them here.


For me, digital was a revelation and rekindled my interest in photography. It gave me the freedom to wander the streets taking pics of anything and everything that catches my eye without spending a fortune on film and processing and most importantly without having to wait to check the results. It also gave me the freedom to experiment.


All photography should be fun and as well as taking conventional pics, I do like to play with light. It doesn’t take a great deal of effort and , providing your camera has some form of manual control, you don’t need any fancy equipment. Any SLR and many compact cameras will allow you to set a long exposure time. All you need then is a dark place and a light source.


Forget the rule book, point your camera at the light source, press the button and move the camera while the shutter is open, simple. If you have a manual zoom, use it while the shutter is open. Be adventurous and do both at the same time. You can even hold the zoom ring steady and rotate the camera instead. Experiment with different shutter speeds and apertures. It doesn’t really matter, providing you don’t drop it, none of this is going to do the camera any harm, and if you don’t like the results just delete them.


If you want to go a little further, try using your camera in a moving vehicle, or fix the camera on a tripod and move the light source instead. The possibilities are endless
.

On the whole, the results are unpredictable but that is part of the fun and with some practice you can give the pictures some sort of form.

Just try it, you might like it!



There are more examples in my Motion Set here http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcnhg/sets/72157603093980490/

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