Motion Abstracts

Sometimes my mood determines what images I decide to process. A few days back I wasn't feeling quite so happy as it had become quite clear that winter was here to stay.  As you might have guessed, the cold and the snow is not something that particularly excites me.

Many folks probably know how this type of image is made, but, for those that don't, it is done entirely 'in-camera' and not after the fact in Photoshop.  This is actually a stand of tall trees and with the camera on a tripod (though these can certainly be done hand-held as well; the tripod simply makes it easier for me) a long shutter speed is chosen (sometimes, depending on the lighting conditions, a polarizer or neutral density filter will need to be used to decrease the amount of light reaching the sensor and allowing for a longer shutter speed).  The camera is moved up and down during the exposure.  Like a pitch or a golf swing, it is best to start the movement before releasing the shutter and to 'follow-through' with smooth, continued motion after the shutter closes in order to ensure that the motion doesn't stop or start abruptly during the exposure itself. Of course, you don't have to limit yourself to movement in the up and down direction, you can be as creative with the motion as you would like.  Try anything; nobody gets hurt.  The worst that could happen is that images that get deleted.

As you might imagine, the results are very hit-or-miss.  Most don't work. But when they do, they can be very intriguing.

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Purple Haze

Copyright Howard Grill

At the time I was working on this image 'Purple Haze' just seemed to be the right title.  And a friend assured me that it is perfectly all right to call it that even though it isn't purple.  

For any readers that are too young to understand the 'Purple Haze' reference, start your education here :)

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