A swinging second or two - 1

Swinging crocuses – an experiment in impressionism

A swinging second or two - 1

In the post Whoosh I declared that I’d made some plans of what I wanted to take on my visit to Newport. Well another shot I wanted to try and re-create was the impressionistic accident I once captured at Soar-y-Mynydd in mid-Wales, which I called Serendipity, when I stumbled with my finger apparently on the shutter-release. Afterwards I discovered that it was a recognised “technique” – but not the stumble part!

What you need to do is to again use a Neutral Density filter to slow the shutter-speed down a bit and then put the camera on shutter-delay and then swing the camera over the subject. You need to experiment to get the result you think best, but here above and below, are my choices of the best from the experiment.

A swinging second or two - 2

A swinging second or two - 3

By the time you get to the last one, the crocus are identifiable, I think. Which one do you like best, or perhaps you don’t like any of them – I can understand that as well!


Comments

9 responses to “Swinging crocuses – an experiment in impressionism”

  1. jane hack avatar
    jane hack

    Hi bro! I like the first two best. The identifiable crocuses not so much. It’s an interesting concept but not one I think worth pursuing too actively! πŸ™‚

  2. I agree Jane, it was just something I wanted to try having done it once before by accident.

  3. Jim Bartlett avatar
    Jim Bartlett

    I’d like to try it, but getting streaks, like a light trail, rather than a blur, David. It won’t be easy though, swinging a camera on a wrist strap.

    1. Lots of experimentation needed then, and I don’t think the wrist strap would help a lot ?

  4. Chris Rusbridge avatar
    Chris Rusbridge

    Well, that’s a coincidence; when I read your last few posts, I thought of leaving a comment suggesting Intentional Camera Movement for the abstract theme. Our FPOTY 19 theme for February was “Abstract and odd”, and I decided to put in an ICM shot, which seemed to have worked quite well. Anyway, I think it’s an interesting technique, with extremely quirky possibilities. A lot easier with a digital camera where you can review as you go along to see what works, rather than having to wait until the whole roll is finished! I’d suggest keeping it up… πŸ˜‰

    1. Indeed Chris, quite a coincidence and I’m glad you’re still popping by to see my efforts! Perhaps the crocus were not a particularly strong subject, I certainly think my accident, my Serendipity, mentioned with a link in the post was a much better subject. So I will try again, but I think the subject needs to have greater variety in it, and yet also greater identifiability about it.

      Please tell me, and I have tried searching for it, what is your FPOTY 19 theme all about?

      1. Chris Rusbridge avatar
        Chris Rusbridge

        By the way, Talk Photography is a pretty well-moderated forum, mostly civilised, though of course there are occasional lapses into name calling etc on most parts… except the Film & Conventional bit, which does appear to be civilised and supportive pretty much all the time (i’ve seen a couple of huffs, no more). But, F&C is not much use to you if film is not your thing!

  5. Frank McLean avatar
    Frank McLean

    Interestingly, I like the last one more than the others!

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