motion blur – that is the topic of this month’s clickin moms photography challenge. i was trying to come up with something creative to do for this challenge but kept coming back to capturing the act of running. so i drug my family outside in the 108 degree texas heat to have them run up and down the street so i could capture motion. the kids loved it – my younger two even got on their bikes and were racing up and down the street having me take pictures of them. my sweet 11 year old dog didn’t want to miss out on the fun either. i think my husband was cursing my name about 10 minutes into the exercise with sweat dripping down his face and arms.
this was a challenging topic for me because i am always trying to stop motion when taking photos of babies, children and families. trying to create motion made me completely rethink my settings of my camera – to drop the shutter speed down really slow. i first set my shutter speed as low as my camera would go and then realized that it was too slow – the kids were blending into the images completetly. it as like little whispers of their shadows floating by. i also like to shoot wide open (2.8 or lower) but couldn’t because my images were way too bright, having a shutter speed that slow and my aperture set at 2.8 was letting in too much light. with a little trial and error i finally found a shutter speed that allowed me to capture them in motion. oh and i did have to use a tripod as well. ideally i would have liked to stop the motion a little more than i did here – but my subjects were melting away in the heat very quickly.
for those that are interested i will post my camera settings with each image.
(0.4s f/22 ISO 50) – this is quinn riding his bike- he looks like a giant streak of color
(1/6s f/22 ISO 50) liam riding his bike with my husband walking behind him.
(1/10s f/16 ISO 50) quinn riding his bike back down the street. you can see the outline of him and his bike a little better here
(1/15s f/13 ISO 50) my sweet dog getting in on the fun – he was done after doing it only once. it was hot!
(1/15s f/13 ISO 50) the boys racing- if you could see my husband’s face you would be able to see the dirty look he is giving me making him do this over and over again
a big thank you to my husband and kids for being my subjects for this challenge – and for putting up with the sweltering heat. please be sure to read tricia ebarvia’s post about motion blur here.
