A Picture A Day » Time exposure

July 4, 2008 – Happy Fourth of July

carl — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:59:59 +0000

We were on our way home from a party thinking we had missed any fireworks. Then, along side the highway where we weren’t expecting it at all, a whole show started up. This shot was taken out the window at about 50mph (I wasn’t driving!).

June 5, 2008 – Railroad Bridge at Night

carl — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:59:59 +0000

A night shot along the Russian River in Healdsburg, CA. This from the first set of time exposure shots with my Canon 40D. I tweaked the color and did some luminance smoothing in Lightroom. The shoot ended when the patrolling police officer informed me "Technically, the park is closed after sunset." He was really nice considering it was 11:30 at night.

May 24, 2008 – Switching to CFLs

carl — Sun, 25 May 2008 06:59:59 +0000

I went through a few more lightbulbs than planned to get this, the clear ones are much more dramatic than frosted.

Using my HiViz sound trigger.

May 23, 2008 – Balloon Pop

carl — Sat, 24 May 2008 05:41:32 +0000

I got a sound trigger kit from HiViz the other day and finally put it together. Any loud sound causes it to trigger the flash.

This is one of my first trials with it. I put flour in the balloon before inflating it, then rubbed it to create static electricity to make the flour stick all around the inside. Then a time exposure and a pin. Fun!

April 29, 2008 – SFO to BOS at Mach 15

carl — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:59:59 +0000

(This is a video, click on the image to play it.)

I shot this with my Olympus 770SW pointed out the window during a cross country flight and landing in Boston. The camera can sustain shooting at about 1fps in its lowest resolution mode, so I let it rip for as long as I could hold down the release before losing all feeling in my finger.

Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate. It starts with a nice view somewhere over MA, then dips into the clouds before emerging over a very bumpy approach to BOS. There are a few missing frames from when I had to reinvigorate my hand or the turbulence knocked the camera about too much.

So, this is a first try – I’m going to perfect this eventually with a better system for holding the camera against the window, and next time I’ll use a camera with a locking cable release (which my Olympus can’t use). And longer exposures to get some motion blur in there would be nice, too.

April 20, 2008 – A Little Night Driving

carl — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:00:00 +0000

I got my car back last week from getting the top fixed in time for summer, and even though we’re going through a cold snap right now it’s really nice to get out in the fresh air.

March 31, 2008 – Breakout

carl — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:42:41 +0000

Lacrosse night game. Three on one and he still breaks through.

Hand held camera in low light, so I had to use motion blur rather than fight it. I think it helps convey the hustle of the game.

November 26, 2007 – The Break

carl — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:50:14 +0000

Playing around with time-lapse photography on the pool table.

November 18, 2007 – Ghost on the Tracks

carl — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 06:59:59 +0000

38°36′18.49″N 122°51′39.30″W
Taken just after sunset on a railroad bridge over the Russian River. 30 second exposure, I lit myself with a flashlight for about 15 seconds and then left the shot so I would be transparent.

November 9, 2007 – The Wedding Photographer

carl — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 06:59:59 +0000

This is an experimental photo I took at Dave and Bev’s wedding. I piggybacked on the wedding photographer’s flash – knowing when she was going to take a photo (mmm, cake!), I took a 1.5 second exposure with no flash. Her flash froze the action for me, but allowed me to get the blur of action.
I framed the shot to include the official photographer to help tell the story of the moment.