Need for Speed: Ten for Tuesday

Colors answer feelings in man;

shapes answer thoughts;

and motions answer will.

~ John Sterling

1.

Hi Friends!

Welcome to the seventh

of eight Ten for Tuesday,

where I share the latest

ten homework pictures

that I will be presenting

at my photography class

this week, along with some

tips for those of you

who want to learn 

alongside me.

This week's task:  To

take photos that 

demonstrate motion.

 2.

You can achieve this in one

 of two ways:  by letting

your subject move OR

by moving your camera.

You can also combine

the two.  

Shutter speed is key.

3.

We discussed shutter speed

in week two, here.  To

quickly recap, shutter speed

controls the ability to freeze

or show motion in a photograph.  

4.

In digital photography, shutter

speed is the moment the light

is recorded on the camera's

image sensor, which is 

controlled by how long the shutter 

stays open after you push down 

the camera's button. {Think of an

eye blinking slowly or rapidly.}

5.

Shutter speed can be set from

1 second {the shutter is open longest}

to 1/1000th of a second {the 

shutter is opened the shortest}.

The longer the shutter stays open,

the more information it will be

able to record on the image sensor.  

The shorter it stays open, the 

more it freezes the exact moment.

6.

Our teacher suggested slowing

down the shutter speed to

1/15th of a second or longer

to capture motion.  This is done

by putting your DSLR in

Shutter Priority mode, where

YOU select the shutter speed

and the camera selects the

camera's aperture {how wide

the opening in the lens will be.}

This is important because slowing down 

the shutter speed will allow more 

light to hit the image sensor, and

the extra light is compensated by

the aperture setting.  Phew!

7.

Now, while Gracie never tires

of jumping for treats for the

greater good of demonstrating

motion, I thought you might

want a bit of variety.  And my

kids absolutely refused to 

jump for treats, as did my husband.

8.

So, once again, I had to propel

myself outside of my snug

little house during a week of 

sub-zero temperatures in order to 

capture my homework assignment. 

{See how much I love you??}

 I got a few shots of cars

whizzing by the church down

the road and one at the paint

store, but beyond that, I was

stumped as to what I was going

to shoot.  

9.

So I did what any red-blooded

American girl would do.....

I turned my car towards the mall.  

Not any old mall, either, but The

 Mall of America, where there is a

big 'ol amusement park 

planted  smack dab in the middle : )

10.

Now, there was a time when

I would have considered shots

with blurring in them to be

bad pictures.  But through this

class, I have come to appreciate

using blur to convey a sense

of movement and even a story.

There are famous photographers

who use blur like a paint brush and

their photos look like paintings.  

They create the blur by moving

the camera either horizontally,

vertically or even diagonally while shooting.

It can truly be beautiful, almost

like impressionism.

This photographer uses camera movement to create this affect.

Via

I hope you will be inspired to

play in Shutter Priority mode

and catch some movement

in your pictures.  I found it

to be challenging, but also

a whole lot of fun.  

And really,

shouldn't that be 

what it's all about?

xx

Suzanne

PS:

To read about

color in photography, 

check out Becky's post today, and 

link up to her Thrive Project.