Motion

Many think that pictures are a way to freeze a moment in time. An alternate way to think of pictures is that they can capture motion in a still image. On August of of 2007, I was at the Garrett County Fairgrounds. Anyone who has ever been to a carnival of any sorts will remember the entire night is in motion. The groups of people and the circling rides never stand still. A fairgrounds is a place that feeds (especially when the night falls and the lights come on) off a moving energy. What I wanted was to capture the movement of that night in a series of still images. The way I did this was to slow the shutter speed down to four to six seconds. I recieved some looks from those passing by as I was taking the pictures. I had to hold the camera as still as possible at one spot for the six seconds to reduce camera shake. The flash was turned off to eliminate artificial brightness. Tampering with shutter speeds results in the illusion of movement in a still image. It is also one of the ways to convey your emotions in a picture.