Pan Fly
Over the last several months I have been taking advantage of earlier than usual opening of the gate at my put-in point in Bay Area Park to practice panning shots at very slow shutter speeds and very high ISO necessitated by the low dawn light. Reviewing a few of these the other day I was lamenting that even the best of them suffered from the noise of the high ISO, when it occurred to me (doh), I could accomplish the same thing in good light simply by shooting at lower ISOs and smaller apertures to reduce the shutter speed. It turns out that with a big lens handheld from a kayak this is still quite a challenge, with only about 1 in 20 keepers so far. I will probably wear out my shutter in the process (or grow bored of trying), but I think there is great potential in the resulting combination of sharp features mixed with motion blur against the smeared backdrop of the bayou. Osprey on Armand Bayou.
Pan Fly
Over the last several months I have been taking advantage of earlier than usual opening of the gate at my put-in point in Bay Area Park to practice panning shots at very slow shutter speeds and very high ISO necessitated by the low dawn light. Reviewing a few of these the other day I was lamenting that even the best of them suffered from the noise of the high ISO, when it occurred to me (doh), I could accomplish the same thing in good light simply by shooting at lower ISOs and smaller apertures to reduce the shutter speed. It turns out that with a big lens handheld from a kayak this is still quite a challenge, with only about 1 in 20 keepers so far. I will probably wear out my shutter in the process (or grow bored of trying), but I think there is great potential in the resulting combination of sharp features mixed with motion blur against the smeared backdrop of the bayou. Osprey on Armand Bayou.