The majority of my work, involves a lot of planning, watching the weather to get the perfect conditions and then fine tuning a composition when I arrive on location. I love following this work flow and it gives a certain amount of satisfaction when you capture the image that you have worked so hard for. From time to time you also get lucky, in that you are driving somewhere and suddenly a composition just appears. This was certainly the case recently with the image that I have attached to the bottom of this blog. I was just in the right place and the right time.
I have experimented with intentional camera movement in the past, without much success, although I have refined a technique for shooting the stars which can create a great effect. I will post a blog about this shortly. The image above was taken totally by chance. No planning, no staging, just good old fashioned luck, in that I accidentally pressed the shutter button when moving the tripod back fractionally. I didn't even give it a second thought until I downloaded the images into Lightroom this morning. I am sure it will help with your Christmas Hangovers if you are reading this on Boxing Day morning.
For those of you who are interested, the EXIF data for the image is, ISO 100, 65mm. f/11 1/5th second and I was moving the camera slightly backwards. I had focused on the Silver Birch in the centre of the image for the composition I was trying to create.
It has certainly created an unusual effect and now I think I know the technique, then it is something that I will have a play with over the coming weeks. Funny how things sometimes happen.
I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the festive period the best you can during these terrible times. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this time next year, we are all vaccinated and life has returned to normal - what ever that may look like. Stay safe everyone and here is to a wonderful 2021.
