I’m in the middle of trips right now, in Australia last week, off to Croatia right now. I love travel; it puts my senses and creativity in overdrive. New sights, sounds, smells…very intoxicating stuff. One aspect I try to look for in my travel images is motion. And there are three types I try to capture; 1)pan/blurs with subjects sharp, 2)blurs where everything is a little blurry, and 3) static subject/motion nearby.
1) Pan/blur. How much fun is it to stand on a street corner and shoot pan and blurs of passing bikers, cars, rickshaws, horses? I start my pan and blurs at around 1/30 and pan with my subject shooting as many frames as I can. Adjust your shutter speed depending on your results and how fast your subject is moving. Using a tripod will give you more usable frames.
2) Blur. Create these abstract images by having everything slightly soft…dancers in motion, pedestrians on the street, birds in the square…I shake my camera a little for more creative results. Shutter speed around 1/20 to start, but experiment with your settings. Try zooming in and out over a 1 second exposure for a ‘zoomie’.
3) Static subject/motion nearby. These images are like a pan and blur, but your subject is not moving, something is moving around it. Take the subway shot above. A bullet train whizzes by a business man in Tokyo. Look for these scenarios when you are out shooting, the images can be stunning.