Page 40 - Cape-Camera-March-April-2021

Cape Camera March/April 2021

Motion/Movement

Shoot what it feels like, not what it looks like

by David duChemin*

1/2 second, hand-held. Sometimes you just have to put the cam- 1/15 Second, hand-held. Just slow enough to give motion to the
era to your face and hope for the best. faster-clapping hands.

II have a rule about motion and movement in my photographs.
Specifically this: if there is movement, I want to see it and I want
to feel it. I don’t do rules very well. But I’ve got a couple of my
own that come pretty close to inviolable. Are there exceptions?
Of course, but that rule forces me to at least play with the pos-
sibilities that a slower shutter and a moving subject can give
me. We can show how motion feels in a photograph, even if it
doesn’t ‘look like that’ to the naked eye. If there is motion, I want
to feel it.
Here are some of the things going through my head when try-
ing to incorporate a sense of motion in my photographs.

1/4 Second, tripod-mounted.

1/8 Second, tripod-mounted to keep the gondola sharp and every-
thing else blurred by motion.

For the photographer starting out, know that you learn how to
put motion into a photograph purely through trial and error.
There is no secret. Different subjects move at different speeds, 1/8 Second, tripod-mounted. Blurring the water and not the bear
which mean there is no one ideal shutter speed for capturing took hundreds of frames to get right.
the feeling of movement. What works for someone walking
(perhaps 1/8 second) will be way too slow for someone running Burst mode will help if you are hand-holding the camera and
(maybe 1/30 second), so you’ve got to develop a bit of a feel for want stationary elements to remain sharp but moving ele-
it. Don’t be discouraged if it takes some time to nail it. This is of- ments to express motion with blur. Often the frames in the
ten what is called a high failure rate activity. Embrace the chaos. middle of a burst will be sharpest when hand-holding at slower

Cape Town Photographic Society 39