Spring Scenery – Life’s a Blur – Behind the Scenes – Part 6

About Life’s a Blur: A photography series that experiments with long exposures and motion blur. Every photo is a combination of movement mixed with a still subject. I’d like to think of each photo like a meditation: stillness in a sea of chaos.

These photos are also part of my Photo and 100 Words project. Since January 2014, I’ve been creating a new photo and writing about it every week. If you’re interested in finding out what prompted me to begin you can read the introduction over here.

(If you’re new to this photography series you might want to read how it all began in Part 1)

The Best Photography for the ‘Worst’ Conditions

This is going to be the briefest behind the scenes post ever, because I’ve already totally explained how to create photos similar to these back in part 2. So I’m posting this mostly so you can compare the before and after shots and see what kind of scenery has the most potential.

I will say that this is the perfect kind of photography to do at noon on a sunny day, which is probably my favorite part! Most kinds of subjects don’t look great at all in direct sunlight, especially harsh, mid-day light. In the case of these blurred scenes, though, the harsher the light, the better. You’ll never be able to use the “golden hour” excuse with this technique… although, as you’ll see below, the golden hour works just fine too.

The spring set of Life’s a Blur:

As is usual with these posts I’ve provided links to the original 100 words I wrote to go along with each photo, just in case you want to dig deeper into my world =)

 

Magnolia Petal in the Breeze

I don’t know what it was, maybe just the pink and blue, but this image sparked me to write about Baby Season.

I really encourage you to experiment with each scene! In petal shot above, I got a little more blue by keeping more of the sky in my frame, and I got more pinks and purples by filling my frame with the flowers in the photo below. Both images came from the same scene, though, and you can alter the positioning of colors and the angle of the streaks by moving your camera in a different direction or starting and ending in different areas of your scene. Experiment, experiment, experiment!

 

Shell of a Flower

I posted this photo along with a brief account of what it was like to sit under this majestic magnolia tree, I was Afraid to Blink.

 

Magnolia Petal Swept Away

I examined everything Bittersweet when I first published this photo.

This image was shot during the infamous golden hour, as the sun was going down, if you like warmer colors you might still shoot for this time of day. Personally, I’m usually unavailable during this time, so if you’re like me and your schedule is booked during the oh-so-precious golden hour light, just warm up your white balance bar in post. (That won’t work at all for typical landscape photography, but with these abstract scenes, no one will know the difference, promise!)

 

Sugar Maple Flowers Blow Away

In Flying Solo I travel back to my teenage years into a memory that was sparked by this photo.

 

Forsythia Flight

I realize this every year, but spring is not always as sweet as it seems, read my thoughts in A Stinky Spring.

When I moved my camera horizontally along this scene I ended up with ugly black stripes where the power lines were, but if I moved in any other direction they disappeared. Diagonally seemed to work best for my tastes with these colors!

 

Dogwood Petal’s Dream

Sometimes I have A Sick Sense of Humor about the world…

 

Pink Petals Fly

I suddenly realized that the entire theme behind the Life’s a Blur series is has gotten so far away from me! Isn’t it Ironic?

This scene was tricky. I had to get in really close to get enough of that pink and purple color I was aiming for. This redbud tree was pretty small and there weren’t that many flowers on it, especially at a distance.

 

Redbud Flower Flight

Read Slowing Down in this Blur to experience one of my most memorable moments!

This scene is similar to the last one, but the slight angle change mixed with a diagonal movement of the camera creates a whole new abstraction!

What’s Next?

Well that’s it for Life’s a Blur, but the good news is that you can now access all the behind the scenes content in the links listed below!

How it All Began – Life’s a Blur – Behind the Scenes – Part 1

Fall Scenes – Life’s a Blur – Behind the Scenes – Part 2

Water Flow and Flowers – Life’s a Blur – Behind the Scenes – Part 3

How to Photograph Snowflakes – Life’s a Blur – Behind the Scenes – Part 4

Creating Surreal Showers – Life’s a Blur – Behind the Scenes – Part 5

In the meantime I’m creating a whole new series right now! In honor of my business name, Reflective Photos, I’m going to be playing around with reflections and distortions to create some fun abstract art. This is partially because I’ve recently become fascinated with reflections, in both the literal and the figurative senses, but also because I know that “reflective photos” is a popular Google search term that finds this site. So why not give the Googlers what they want?

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