Panning

Panning is lots of fun. You should try it. The recipe is also pretty simple.

1. Find something that's moving. (In this case, it's a car. But it could be a bicycle, or a skateboarder, or even just a person walking.)

2. Make sure your shutter speed is kind of slow. I used 1/50s here, but that's because the car was moving fast. Usually I like 1/30 for vehicles, and 1/15 for bicyclists and people. But you have to find your balance. If too much is blurry, speed up your shutter. If it's not blurry enough, slow it down.

3. Track your subject with the camera. I like to use burst mode here and just take a bunch of shots while I move the camera with the subject. Out of three or four shots usually one is pretty good.

4. Practice! Chances are that your first tries at panning will suck. Mine sure did. But you'll get a lot better quickly if you just keep at it.

If you have any great pan shots, please feel free to link to them in the comments. I'd love to see yours.

Skyline

Another image from early morning, just a different angle but the same place I took the bridge photo. I have some exciting images from today's shooting, but I haven't processed any yet, so you'll just have to settle for this one. And proof that it's always somewhat foggy here in San Francisco.

In my watermarking journey I've been attempting to make it happen on export from Lightroom, but that just hasn't been working that well for me. For this image I took it into Photoshop and created it there, which works a lot better. I can control color, size, and placement much better. I'd still like to be able to automate the process, and the less I do in Photoshop the better, just in terms of time, but maybe for a while I'll work this way until I figure out what kind of watermark will work best with all images.

Joy

I don't have a dog, but there's nothing better than watching one run. I just love how dogs give a two second run everything, as if there's never been a run before and never will one come again. Which is why I had to grab this picture as I was walking by, even though I don't know this dog and likely never will. And why I'm posting it, even though it's not actually perfectly sharp.

If I could run with that much joy, I'd be in a lot better shape.

(By the way, thanks for all your helpful comments yesterday about watermarks. Many of you said insightful things. I am still trying to find the perfect balance between all the reasons for having one.)

Watermark? Plus some cows . . .

As you can probably tell, I'm working on finding a watermark that works for me. I'm still not wild about this one, although I do like the font. I'd like it to be really legible, but also elegant and unobtrusive. A tall order, in other words.

Let me know what you think.

Late

A very late post for today - I hope you can forgive me.

Curve

Yes, another early morning image from the same batch. I'm just going to have to get up early more often in the future, that's all there is to it. This one was shot probably around 7:30, 45 minutes after dawn.

Specs are -
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/11
Shutter speed: 1/50 sec
ISO: 100