Art of Photography: Assignment 1 - Still/Moving

This category didn't really turn out as I'd hoped. Based around a set of swings, the idea was to show the swings in use and capturing motion, and then when not in use. I wanted to have sunshine or bright colours in the Moving image and subdued colours in the Still image, hoping this would add a feeling of fun and happiness when the swing was played on, and a contrasting dullness or loneliness when it wasn't.

My only task for the still image was to try and find an angle and composition to make the Still image interesting. I tried many different angles and am fairly happy with the result, but feel without a good 'Moving' image the idea is not presented as well as I imagined.

For the Moving image I found it really hard to capture much detail in the movement during the day or brighter light. Obviously it is not too hard to capture a small amount of motion blur, but I had envisioned capturing the whole arc of the swing and this is what I was trying to achieve. I had a few attempts on different days but could not find settings to capture the image as I hoped. To have long shutter speeds during the day requires slower or narrower apertures, and I also used ND filters to reduce the light reaching the sensor. Whilst there wasn't a problem obtaining the shutter speeds I wanted, it was only capturing little if any of the swing motion. I tried many times with many different settings. I also tried having my flash set to second curtain sync, thinking it would be brilliant if I could capture a blurred swing with the person using the swing sharper at the front of their arc, but unfortunately this didn't work either. I believe this was due to my on camera flash not being powerful enough, and that with a dedicated external flash I could achieve what I wanted.

This is another example of not being able to do what I hoped because of my equipment. Whilst I have been very happy with it in general, there have been a couple of occasions where I would like to possess more. I have already purchased a flashgun kit and nice lens and will continue to upgrade when I can.

So overall I guess the images are okay, but unfortunately not what I had pictured or wanted to achieve.

Still

Image taken at f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO-1600 and 100mm.

Moving

Image taken at f/11, 0.6 sec, ISO-200 and 20mm.