Continuous Motion....I GOT IT!!

Okay so I have to say I am sooooo excited for TWO reasons! 1) because being the slow blogger I am, I just realized I can update my blog from my iPhone (poolside baby, yeah!) and 2) because I was able to get an AWESOME continuous motion shot! I may be more excited than I should be but nonetheless I am, shall we say--"tickled pink"?!? So I have to start with the fact that I was inspired by Scott Kelby in book one of his digital photography series that I blogged about a few posts back (my eternal thanks, Scott-you truly have made me a better photographer ;-D). I have to say that when I read his page regarding continous motion I was fascinated with the idea (probably as excited as I got when I learned how to "paint with light" and shot a complete heart I drew with two light up swords my kids had at the local firework spectacular, Thunder over Louisville-I would totally blog about that if I didn't lose the photo to a BAD HARD DRIVE...total other story...I will recreate the photo and blog all about that another day!) and seriously wanted to rush out to the local outdoor extreme skate park (I still plan to go!) but in the meantime I had something much more important to attend to...Kindergarten graduation.

Yes, my little man was graduating Kindergarten and in his eyes that meant he wasn't a little kid anymore. Oops gotta take a break for food, (free cookout at the neighborhood pool- can't pass that up!) Needless to say he also made a point to tell mom and dad that he wanted a BIG present (since he was now a BIG kid of course!) and hinted that he wanted a new motorcycle (he doesn't ask for much, does he?!) Being that he already has a motorcycle (Fisher Price Harley Davidson), but the batteries that it takes have been dead for a year, I decided it was time to cough up the $80 to buy the kid new batteries and bring life to the dead Harley. Alright, I know--I am seriously getting to the point. So I went to the adorable boys graduation and brought him a small gift (and by small I mean in size-can't exactly haul a Harley jr in the school gymnasium!) and I was playing with my new lens (which I happen to have a love/hate relationship with) and managed to capture some super cute glimses of little mans excitement for his new game-the self titled "game boy" happens to LOVE Mario (who doesn't?). Dang, that boy can melt my heart with those baby blues...

Soooooo when we got home he found his beautiful piece of heavenly blue plastic waiting on the front porch, was he excited? Ummm, yeah...you could say so. It was while I was somewhere between happy dreamy bliss from beautiful images like these:

(beautiful to me because of the sharpness where I wanted it, the bokeh where I wanted it, the nice color that the lens translated to my LED, and the most beautiful subjects I could ask for in my humble opinion!)....


                      ...to complete frustration from blurry shots like these (see why I have a love/hate relationship...bad bokeh!?):

when I realized "I can take a continous motion shot of my little man riding his little heart away". So I pulled back into the files I store in my brain sorted under "Scott Kelby" and started adjusting my settings. I started clicking continuously when little man gave his sister a lift and prayed for a miracle. I got it!! Not only did I get it, but I really got it! I LOVE the expression of I intensity on his face, love that my little chicka was looking over at me, nailed the sharpness on my subject and the blurry motion suggesting their movement that I was looking for AND was able to keep plenty of room for the motorcycle to go, making for a much more interesting composition.

WOW. I did it. I'm so proud of myself! And I think I'll like this more than any race car, dirt bike or skate trick I'll catch like this in later days. I got my first continuous motion shot and it rocked because it is special to me, because it shows the free spirit, unbridled fun my babies were having. I love it and I am SO thrilled. As a mom. As a photographer.  This is one for the portfolio kids ;-).

Wanna know how I did it? Okay, here is the recipe (you did all this reading, you deserve to reap a benefit here I know!) slow down your shutter speed (something below 1/60th of a second or where you would usually need a tripod-the slower, the more motion you can show), click the shutter and pan (follow) your camera around the moving subject in the same direction and relativley same speed they are going. Be sure to be shooting on continuous and be sure your subject is in focus. That's it. Your goal is to have your subject in focus and the surrounding area to show a motion around it. I plan to do ALOT more of this. I can think of so many fun ideas with this besides the obvious ones I mentioned above (long run on the diving board, waterfights, races (kids, bikes, cars, horses..whatever!, even babies first steps!) This can be a super fun trick that only the pros know so I truly hope I can help some of u other newbs to find the joy I have with this great technique!

Till next time!  BTW: Working on the Kandy Pop Photography website now...should be up and running very soon! Thanks for all of your support!

Warmly,
Kass