A Twist on Blur Technique

[Arthur Morris]

When Denise and I visited Fort DeSoto Park near St. Petersburg, FL about on APR 11 we were thrilled to encounter a large flock of migrant Common Terns. I had previously seen such a flock there only in fall. The best news is that the flock was blasting off every five to ten minutes or so: Bosque at the beach. :)

This image was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 500. Evaluative metering +2 stops: 1/60 sec. at f/5.6 set manually.

Why such a huge blur at a relatively (for a distant flock) fast shutter speed? (The farther away the birds, the less the degree of blurring at a given shutter speed.) The reason for the large degree of blurring is that I kept the lens still as the birds blasted off. (You can see that the birds on the ground are fairly sharply rendered.) Had I panned with the birds as they took flight they would have been relatively sharp while the birds on the ground would have been a bit blurred.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Kerry Perkins]

Really like this Artie. I love how there appear to be layers of blur and the focus gets sharper as you scan down to the bottom of the image. I had a go with blurs at Bosque and found them harder than I thought!

[Arthur Morris]

I had a go with blurs at Bosque and found them harder than I thought!

Thanks Kerry. That's why Denise and I are working on a Guide to Pleasing Blurs. As you likely know, I have made a few successful blurs at Bosque :) and a few successful sharp ones too. :) :) Next year there will be my 16th in a row there at Thanksgiving in part to honor the memory of my late wife Elaine. I love the place.

[Kerry Perkins]

I really, madly, deeply want to come to Bosque for Thanksgiving this year. But... It will be my wife's mother's 80th birthday and I'm not going to make it. :( I fell in love with it too. I spent a total of eight days there last November. Out before dawn and didn't come in until after dark.

[Arthur Morris]

Enjoy the bird-day party!

[denise ippolito]

Artie, It was a great to see the blast off of these Terns. I never witnessed anything like it before. I like how the birds are in focus on the bottom, it really makes the image sweet.:)

[Arthur Morris]

Thank you. Wait till you get to Bosque in NOV!

[Indranil Sircar]

Artie, love this image... just as Kerry mentioned, layers of blur and how it gets sharper lower down. First I could not understand till I read your explanation. Just beautiful. I am yet to send you the form for Bosque; will do so this week.

[Hilary Hann]

One of the greatest pleasures I find in nature photography is when living animals can be 'seen' as an artistic subject. Whilst I love well made images of birds and animals which show them as they are, I love even more the images which turn a living creature into a work of art which has been visualised by the photographer prior to firing the shutter. (Sorry for the wordy sentence :o )

I love these kinds of photographs where there is a mainly graphic look and where colours don't over power those graphics. Will look forward to learning how to do these blur techniques 'better', because I haven't had much success at all yet. :)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for your kind words, Hillary. I will post some more from that day and hope that Denise does the same. Too bad that it is such a long flight from Down Under to Bosque else you could join us on the Thanksgiving IPT next November :) Actually, Chris Van Rooyen is joining me as co-leader on that trip, we have had folks on IPTs who traveled from Japan and Hong Kong, and we offer a 10% discount to all BPN members who attend IPTs :)

The first requirement for blurred images of big flocks of birds is of course, big flocks of birds :) Do you have any situations like that where you are?

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Artie, I would love to join you one November, what fun.

I hadn't thought about large flocks of birds but near us we have large (in excess of 3000 birds) flocks of little corellas (a large white parrot). I will see if I can experiment on them. Why didn't I think of it before? :(

Thank you thank you … but not promising to ever post anything in case they are shocking. ;)

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. We look forward to seeing some of your corellas blurs. The faster they fly and the more they swirl about the better!

[Christopher Miller]

Very nice, Artie. Love the layers of birds going from blurred to sharp. Unfortunately there aren't really any big flocks of birds where I live, so I can't really try this. :( Oh well, maybe some day.

[Arthur Morris]

Where in MASS do you live???

[Christopher Miller]

I live in central Mass.