A Sense of Motion.

OK... how is it that the kayaker's head and upper body are perfectly sharp while everything around him is a serious blur? His kayak, his paddle, his hand, the water splashing over the boat, the river rushing around the boat...everything is moving. Why isn't he?

Well, it is probably only fair to tell you that he is actually riding a little wave there. What he does is settle into a small trough and pretty much goes into surfing mode. So for a short period of time his upper body is not moving all that much. He's balancing himself with the paddle, moving his hands, and of course the water is still rushing by!

What I did was used a relatively slow shutter speed, in this case 1/30th of a second, then focused on his head and shot off several frames. (Always good to shoot many images!) The lens I used did have the vibration reduction activated, which certainly helped some. But it can only do so much. Proper, steady handholding technique is still required! (More on that in a future post.)

A tripod and a lens without VR will work just as well. (check out the "blue" kayaker in my C&O Canal/Great Falls page on my website.)

Anyway, it's a pretty cool effect and a departure from the typical stop-action stuff where all the action is, well...stopped. There's just something about being able to see the motion. Don't you think?

OK, til next time...

Cheers.