Blur-o-graphy

Anyone out there?

2011-02-27T14:14:00.000-08:00

I wonder if anyone watches this blog anymore?

I've not posted anything for a month or two and I was so looking forward to getting out in the snow. But time and other commitments put a stop to that. Oh well never mind. If someone sees this and likes it all well and good.

Snow time

2010-11-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

I've been waiting for the snow to hit Minnesota with some excitement, looking forward to the opportunities that it might present for blurs. I have seen some very inspirational images from William Neill taken in the snow.

Other commitments meant that I wasn't able to get out with my camera until this morning. I think this first effort is quite promising

Aspen Trunks bay lake

2010-11-28T08:28:00.000-08:00

Another blur from a very productive walk before breakfast one late fall morning near Bay Lake, MN

fall grove

2010-11-25T07:22:00.000-08:00

Another fall colours blur from near Bay Lake, MN

Fall colours

2010-11-24T19:05:00.000-08:00

I've been going through my blurs from the fall, looking for something to post. There are just so many of them and I honestly could spend hours and hours trying to tweak them in photoshop trying to get them just right.

I like this one, Its some aspen trunks up near Bay Lake, MN

long time no post

2010-11-24T04:09:00.000-08:00

I can't believe its been a month since my last blur posting. So its about time I quickly did another one. Oak trees in Minehaha Park, Minneapolis, early morning

Holiday Snaps, Snowdonia

2010-10-24T05:39:00.001-07:00

The Snowdonia National Park in North Wales is one of my very favourite places in the whole world. I love the mountain scenery and this time on our vacation in the UK were were lucky enough to return there. We based ourselves in the Royal Victoria Hotel in Llanberis in a room with a view of Llanberis lake from one window and the mountains from another.
One morning I awoke and threw the back the curtains to see a pool of light moving slowly across the mountain side. I quickly grabbed my camera and instead of a horizontal or vertical pan I moved the camera along the angle of the slope. I think the effect is quite effective.
Most of the time we were there the weather was gorgeous. But these are mountains and the weather can change very quickly. One afternoon, while driving down the Aberglaslyn pass, I was amazed to see banks of cloud appear over the tops of the mountains and chop the tops off. A perfct opportunity for some blurs I thought. So we stopped at a convenient scenic viewpoint and I clicked away, sweeping my camera across the magnificent vista as I did so. This must have been much to the chagrin of the photographer with his camera mounted on a tripod fiddling with all manner of filters and inspecting the histogram on his camera trying to take a photograph down the valley.
This last shot is my particular favourite from our sojourn in North Wales. See how the clouds, mountains and the highlights and shadows have worked together to create some kind of reflection of each other. Super.

More Holiday Snaps

2010-10-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

OK so its been a long time but I've been busy. I have acouple of minutes to spare, so returning to my list of pictures I have to post here's a couple of the tide washing in against a shingle bank on the seafront at Folkestone. As the waves gently break on the shore they make an interesting effect

Holiday Snaps 2 The English Channel

2010-09-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

While we were in the UK we had a chance to stay with an aunt and uncle who lived in Folkestone, Kent in an apartment that overlooked the English channel (yes I could see France and yes, I did try to do a blur-o-graph of the French coast more of that later maybe)

The mornings were alway gorgeous and the light on the water was too good to resist. Here then are a couple of blurs of the English Channel...

This first one is a blur of the clouds in the sky

This shows the shadows of the clouds on the water.

Holiday Snaps (part one)

2010-09-19T05:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

It has been pointed out to me that things have been quiet on the blur-o-graphy front lately. Well the truth is I've been on holiday back home in England and I've taken lots of photographs both normal and blurs. So its taking me a while to go through them. But I do have plenty of blurs to share with you. This first group of three come from the Rimac nature reserve North of my home town of Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire.

Rimac is a remarkable place of sand dunes and saltmarsh. Quiet and tranquil and though you are less than half a mile off the main coast road you would thing that you were in the middle of nowhere.

These views are of the saltmarsh with the sea and some surf in the background.

I'm inclined to think that these pictures would look pretty good displayed as a triptych.

Light Rains down

2010-08-17T18:24:00.001-07:00

Another one from the weekend. This is probably the most abstract I've ever produced. I've stripped this one down to light and shadow. Shape and form are pretty much out of the window on this one.

Apres Georges

2010-08-16T18:11:00.001-07:00

Georges Seurat that is.

The Impressionist school of painting has always been one of my favourites. Particularly the work of Georges Seurat. So imagine my surprise when I looked at these images and found myself thinking

"Georges Seurat would have painted like that." Actually any one of a dozen Impresionists would have painted like this but the small dot-like texture of these images put me in mind of the pointillist style adopted by Seurat.

Forgotten forest

2010-08-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

For some reason I forgot all about the shots I took in the woods behind the cabin this morning. I just found them on the camera just as I was about to erase the files on the memory card. Good job I checked. I'm quite pleased with the feeling of light breaking through the leaves into the woods with this one. I found I'd taken about 8 shots of this scene all imperceptibly different.

ISO 100 f22 4.0 secs 27mm ZD 14-42 ND8

Crazy Day

2010-08-08T14:26:00.001-07:00

Well, not so much a crazy day as a crazy hour this morning up at the cabin. It was about 70F and very sticky when I got up this morning with som early morning mist on the lake. But that very quickly burned off and by the time I'd got back from my curtailed run the sun was shining quite brightly and I managed to produce some quite interesting images of some tree trunks in the front yard. The particular trunk below I'm very happy with as it has some good detail in the trunk while tending towards the abstract. Rather than having a painterly feel to it there's a roughness almost like a pastel drawing.

Above: ISO 100, 4 seconds, f9 42mm ZD 14-42 ND8

This Vee'd tree has a particular fascination for me. I'll probably take more shots of it before long. Perhaps I should even find out what sort of tree it is. Perhaps I should find out what all these trees are...
Above: ISO 100, f 10, 3.2 secs, 37mm ZD 14-42, ND8

Then the strangest thing happened. The fog blew back in again. I've never seen that happen in all the years I've been going up to the lake. Visibility came down to 100 yards or so obliterating all detail in the far side of the bay. Perfect conditions to try a blur-o-graph

Above: ISO 100, f22, 5 secs, 200mm PL 45-200, ND8

Lessons in lighting

2010-08-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

A weekend jaunt up to the cabin always presents me with new photo opportunities and fires up my creative juices. So here's a few from Saturday. The first two are of some birch tree trunks in the front yard. Exactly the same trees. Its just that for some unknown reason I managed to underexpose the first shot by a stop and a half and by the time I'd pulled that stop and a half back with CameraRaw the tree trunks took on a different hue. I like them both.

These birch grove shots were an exercise in patience. I saw the grove in the light of the setting sun and knew I had to get a picture. But by the time I had my camera ready. The sun had gone behind a cloud. I had to wait some 15 minutes for the sun to return, meanwhile mosquitoes feasted on me... In the first shot the sun was just starting to appear from behind the clouds in the second was a fleeting moment of full sunlight. Just as quickly it was gone.

waterswirls

2010-08-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

By way of a bonus heres some extra pictures from down at the river this afternoon. These were all shot almost wide open with all the ND filters on the PL45-200 lens and as a result I was only getting exposures of 1-2 seconds at ISO 100. These were all hand held. When I saw them on the camera screen I wasn't all that excited with them but I knew better than to delete them just like that, I could see some interesting patterns and textures in there and after I'd boosted the sharpness, contrast, clarity and blacks and boosted the saturation in CameraRaw I was starting to get happy with them.

Above: the swirls on the right hand side are particularly appealing f9 2.5 secs
Above: though in a shorter exposure of 1 second at f9 the swirls disappear
Above: I get the feeling of an impressionist painting from this one f9 2 secs
I almost want to believe that this is a rough sea in a violent storm, but I know that those whitecaps are only a few inches tall f7.1 1.3 secs

This is what I find really exciting about blur-o-graphy. You really never know exactly what you've go until you get the pictures home and see them on the computer, full size. In that way in these days of hi-tech we have a photography process that is just like getting prints back from the processor. The more things change the more they stay the same eh?

Water, water everywhere

2010-08-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

Whilst out for a run at lunch I came across a scene that I liked and after I'd run home, showered and changed I returned camera in hand to take this picture of a water fountain. All nice and symmetrical that just cried out to be photographed in a panoramic format. I was quite lucky in that it only took me 12 attempts to get something I liked.

Above: ISO 100, 1.3 secs, f 22, 91mm PL 45-200, ND 2, 4 & 8 filters

So, buoyed by the success of the panoramic format shots I headed down to the river in town to see what I could do there. Even with all my ND filters mounted on my PL 45-220 and using f22 I could only get 8,10 and 15 second exposures. I would have liked perhaps 30 seconds but these three pictures are not entirely unpleasant

Down to the river...

2010-07-31T14:10:00.000-07:00

Armed with a full selection of ND filters and tripod and in the middle of the afternoon I headed off to the river to see what I could do with the water there. I've not taken any pictures of water trails for quite a while and it is one of the most accesible subjects for blur-o-graphy. The first four pictures were taken with the camera mounted on the tripod and with all three of my neutral density filters mounted in front of the lens the ND2, 4 and 8

Above: ISO 100 f22 13 secs

Above: ISO 100 f22 25 secs

The next two were taken from the same viewpoint (OK so the camera moved a tiny bit) with the same settings. It just goes to show that the flow of the water can make subtle differences in the image
Both ISO100 f 22 4 secs
Below: ISO100 f22 5 secs

Out and about with ND filters

2010-07-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

On Monday my selection of Cokin ND filters arrived. I was excited to try them out but had to wait until today, Friday to do so. So I went down to Riverside park in Princeton to try them out on some of the trees down there. It was a cloudy day and with the ND4 and ND8 I could really slow the shutter speed down with the aperture wide open. It was quite fun to mess around. I've also started to tweak the images more in CameraRaw.

Above ISO 100 f 5.6 0.5 sec 42mm ZD 14-42 ND4 + ND8

ISO 100 f4.5 0.6 sec 42mm ZD 14-42 ND8

Above: ISO 100 f 4.5 1 second 26mm ZD 14-42 ND4 + ND8

Above: ISO 100 f5.6 0.3 sec 42mm ZD 14-42 ND4

Coneflower studies

2010-07-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

The beautiful conditions at the cabin this weekend must have inspired me for when I saw the Coneflowers in the garden I fair attacked them with the camera. Some of the results are seen below

Above: Blowing in the wind. ISO 100 f22 0.6 sec 200mm PL 45-200 ND2 filter

Above: "Coneflower spin". ISO 100 f16 0.5 sec 24mm ZD 14-42

Above: "Shining". ISO 100 f16 0.5 sec 24mm ZD 14-42

Above: "!" ISO 100 F16 0.8 sec 42mm ZD 14-42

Above: "Centre" ISO 100 f 16 1 sec 42mm ZD 14-42

On Order

2010-07-22T04:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I placed an order for come Cokin neutral density filters. They will help me open the aperture up and slow the shutter speed down when I carry on taking pictures

Further Lilly Studies

2010-07-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

The Lillies in my wifes garden are providing me with excellent subject matter this week.

Lilly #1

2010-07-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

I needed a break from trees for my blur-o-graph subjects. So I tried a budding lilly in the wifes flower bed. At last count it was 40 attempts at this one bud to get something I was grudingly happy with. I had to get some distracting background out of the shot that's why you can't see the tip of the bloom. I would have liked the tip in there. But then you would have seen a dark streak on the image.

Blurs around my house (part2)

2010-07-17T09:11:00.001-07:00

This particular morning I ran out to take advantage of the early morning sun and learnt something.

See the Orangey streaks? That is lens flare. See how it's curved. That because I was shooting wit the lens zoomed out wide 17mm on my ZD 14-42. A couple of interesting facts to bear in mind for the future.

Blurs around my house (part1)

2010-07-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

in the week most of my time is taken up with driving to work, working, driving home and getting a run in as part of my marathon training as a result sometimes I'm left with very little time to shoot. Still I persevere. and shooting into the sunset I got two very different effects. Firstly here is the normal scene of my front yard. I purposely shot directly into the sun so there would be some contrast between light and shadow.

Above: This image I shot moving the camera downwards which seems to be an unnatural movement for me. I seem to want to always move the camera upwards like below. You can see that something as simple as the direction of the movement has an effect on the image.

Tree trunk Blur

2010-07-17T08:58:00.001-07:00

I tried a bit of a different technique this time. I focussed on the hollow in the tree trunk and held the camera there for about half of the .8 sec exposure before moving it. It gave some definition to that element of the image which I kinda like.

Trees and water fountain

2010-07-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

Blur-o-graphy I just like the good old days of film photography. You don't know what you're going to get until you process the image. Like this one. Not my best shot of this particular day I feel. But what attracts me to this image is that light streak in the upper right third. It was left by a water fountain in the background of the scene. I love that.

Cherry Tree Blur

2010-07-17T08:48:00.001-07:00

You'll have to excuse me I'm still playing catch up. This image is just over a week old.

Blurs can be hit or miss. When I looked out of the window Friday evening and saw this shaft of light cutting through the trunk of the flowering cherry in our back garden I just knew that I had to have a picture. I dropped the washing up (I didn't break anything) and ran outside. Unfortunately I only had time for the one shot before the sun had moved and the light was gone. So I never got the chance to explore the light fully . Still there's an ethereal ghostly quality to the image

A change of Scenery

2010-07-17T08:24:00.001-07:00

I've spent the whole week looking for blur-o-graph subjects in my back garden, (more of those to come later). So on Friday evening I decided to head over to the Sherburne Wildlife refuge to see how I would look at the new vistas presented to me. In retrospect I was probably out there too early as it had been a very bright and sunny day and with only an ND2 filter to slow things down some of my shutter speeds were a tad too fast initially, even with the ND2 filter and some judicious use of shadows it took a while for the shutter speeds to come down to where ai was happy with them. Still I did get some shots I was reasonably happy with. But I feel that there was a couple that I missed because of the light levels. So its off to the camera shop this afternoon to get another ND filter.

So here's some of the pictures that I liked from yesterday evening. I was shocked to find that I had actually taken 71 pictures in the short time I was out. I think these are some of the most "painterly" blurs I've shot so far. I'm also starting to tweak a bit more in CameraRAW too.

Young Birches ISO 100 f/22 .3 sec 45mm PL 45-200 ND2
Twisted Birch Saplings ISO 100 f 1/10 sec 200mm PL45-200 ND2
Fir Plantation ISO100 f11 .5 sec 200mm PL 45-200 ND2
Vee'd Oaks ISO 100 f16 0.4 sec 45mm PL 45-200 ND2

White Streak

2010-07-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

Another thing I very quickly cottoned onto is that WHITE tree trunks are popular in blur pictures. Birches and Aspens in particular. Sadly I only have the one white trunked paper birch in my front yard the rest of the fir trees surrounding our house are all dark trunked. So when we headed up to the North Shore of Lake Superior to watch the lighting of Split Rock Lighthouse as soon as I saw the white trunks of the trees nearby I knew I had to have a go.

Not a perfect shot by any means but I does illustrate why white tree trunks are so popular in blurs, they contrast so well with the background.

Diagonal Blur

2010-07-16T13:27:00.000-07:00

By now you should be able to tell that I am well and truly hooked on this "blur-o-graphy" lark. So the day after the sunset blur picture I was out again close to sunset to see what I could find. I was taken with the diagonal stress to this scene. Already I was starting to see things in terms of light and shade rather than shape and form. This picture I feel is the one so far that feels most like an impressionist painting.

Sunset Blur

2010-07-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

This will always be a special picture for me. This one was taken to mark 90 days of my Picture a Day project. I knew I wanted to mark 90 days with a blur so I waited until the end of the day to get a sunset shot to see what I could do.

Cottoning on...

2010-07-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

It didn't take me very long to realise that trees and tree trunks are a very suitable subject for blur-o-graphy. Being vertical its very easy to pan up the height of a tree and get patterns in the bark to streak into interesting formations.

This was my first effort. Not that I made it easy on myself mind. I went for three trunks close together.

But that did serve to teach me something. Focus can make a difference.

You might well think (and who can blame you) that if you're moving the camera what difference does it make if your shot is in focus?

It has to do with depth of field. On a close up view like this you can see that the middle tree is sharper than the outer two. This was shot wide open at f4.5 at 78mm with my Panasonic Lumix 45-200 so not much depth of field there. You can tell that the middle tree was in focus.

This early picture is still one of my favourites.

Progress

2010-07-16T12:39:00.001-07:00

Suitably intrigued by my first attempt at this new technique of blur-o-graphy, a few days later I was out in the front yard in the rain trying out the technique again. Another very pleasing result for a beginner.

I think I shot about a dozen pictures of this scene. This being number 12. "

Quit while you're winning" say I

How did I get here?

2010-07-16T10:36:00.001-07:00

I discovered "Landscape blurs" or blur-o-graphy as I like to call it quite by accident. I was out early one morning to take a picture for my picture a day project, attracted by the dew laden grass in my front yard.

I scouted around, looking for a good angle and once I found a view I liked I pressed the shutter release, not remembering that I had the 2 second delay still on from the previous night. So the picture didn't take when I expected it to and when the shutter did release the camera was moving.

"Curses!" I thought to myself and switched on the LCD to delete the image. But hang on a moment, there was something rather pleasing about this picture. It wasn't about the details in the shot it was about the light and shadow and how it affected the colours. It reminded me of the impressionist paintings I used to love to look at in Art College.

I thought I was onto something, something new and exciting. I posted the picture in my blog at the micro four thirds site, mu-43.com and was introduced to the works of Alain Briot. Very neat. Further research has revealed other practitioners of the technique such as William Neil and others whose web presences I will place in the links section.

So I'm not the only one practicing the technique. In fact I'm very much the beginner. But I'm very excited by the whole concept and have been photographing blurs quite a lot since this first shot. Excited enough to want to blog about the pictures I take and discuss what I learn from taking them.