Monday, October 22, 2007

Movement

Tijuana Taxi


Heading home for the evening.


The first photo is one of my toy cars, a reissue of a Hotwheel I had as a kid. The reissue isn't a Hotwheel, but a series of larger reissues by a third party die cast car company in tribute to the custom car designer, Tom Daniel. I was playing around with the movement filter in Elements, something I've never done, and ended up liking this better than the static shot of the little car.

One day last week, after work, I thougt the sky portended an awesome sunset, so I diverted from home and went to the nearest causeway out to the Atlantic. (I didn't go all the way to the ocean, didn't have enough time before dark.) The sunset wasn't as grand as I hoped, but I got some good photos anyway. While trying to get a zoomed in view of the colored clouds I saw birds fly through the frame so I turned to follow them and got this and a couple of other shots.

I wasn't really looking to stop movement, and operated on impulse, thus the slow shutter speed and blur here. But somehow, it works for me anyway, so it makes the cut.

11 comments:

Lori said...

That is a lovely sunset shot. The colors are so pretty. I find it very hard to get shots like that. This one is great!

Gudl said...

I like the sky photo. But don't you think, too, that most of the time it still looks better in 'real' than on photo?

imac said...

John, I just love this sunset photo, its magic.

JAM said...

gudl, yes, they do look better in person. There's a whole other set of senses involved when you are watching it live as opposed to seeing it in a photo.

Believe me when I say that I do take time to stop, smell the salt air, watch the sunset with my eyes in addition to through the viewfinder, etc.

What I challenge myself with in photography is to hopefully put photos on here that I have been able to capture something that will allow the viewer's mind to fill in the missing sensations and enjoy the photo similar to what I did standing there.

It doesn't always happen, but I try to capture something in the photo that sparks an emotion.

Neva said...

Well, if you saw my UFO shot, you would know I need serious help on night shots!! But this is gorgeous. Thanks for all the nice comments....and we will see about how the University of Illinois does under Zook..I certainly have enjoyed the games I have been to this year...:o)

photowannabe said...

Well done. The motion worked well and the sunset is very calming.

J. Andrew Lockhart said...

I love the car one!! nice work.

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

I love both the set of motions here ..the induced one and the natural one .....the shot of birds flying back home is very evocative...its touching midnight here and am still sitting in my lab typing my thesis ......if only i could fly like those birds... just 10 more days and i'll be a free bird too :)

Kerri Farley said...

Love the sunset! The car interests me most.... I didn't know you could do that in Elements. So much to learn!!!!

Mermaid Melanie said...

love the hot wheels photo.

CG said...

I like the car picture a lot; very dynamic. Love the birds too; the slight blur creates a dreamy feel.