Matthew R. Hibbard

Second Approach

I failed my first attempt at movement photography. I walked across town, across parts of Stephen’s college and set my tripod right on the walkway looking over College Avenue.

I set up my tripod, set my ISO to 100 (the lowest setting possible) and waited for the cars to come. Now, I was shooting towards the sun, which was my first mistake. Second, the location wasn’t the best. I was getting movement, but only for a brief period of time since there was a traffic light near by.

Most of the images were over-exposed. The objective of this lesson was to capture motion, but all I was doing was stopping motion. After messing with the settings for a good hour, I decided to pack up and accept defeat (at that time at least).

The second time, I photographed movement with my professor, Karen Mitchell. We grabbed our gear and headed out of the journalism school and situated ourselves near the road. The sun was perfect and there were quite a few cars driving around.

This time I was able to get the shots I wanted. I was able to see the progression of motion blur as I went from a lower shutter speed to a higher shutter speed. I also noticed a change in the depth of field.

I learned how capturing motion can be an art in a way. You can smear the colors and details to create something abstract and beautiful.