Nope, not Newton’s First Law. I’m talking about photographing objects in motion, specifically landscapes in motion.
Most of the time landscape photographers wait for calm days with little or no wind, then set up a tripod with their camera and wide-angle lens, stopped down to around f/16, lowest ISO, and whatever shutter speed is required. In these conditions, swaying grass or moving branches is their kiss of death – the lightest breeze will have them cursing as they re-shoot.
What I’m interested in is just the opposite – I want to go out and shoot on days that have a good breeze gusting through, or even a steady wind. I WANT to see things moving in my photos!
Why? I think the better question is, why not? Things move in the real world; the wind blows and landscapes respond. Yet it seems like the only things that get photographed moving with any regularity are waterfalls and the night sky. For some reason photographers think “softly flowing waterfall – cool,” but “softly waving grass – ugh!” I don’t know why this is.
Moving grass is one of my favorite subjects and I’ll travel out of my way to find a good field where it’s grown long. I use a tight f-stop (f/16 or so) to get a deep depth of field and my lowest ISO, and usually at least one Neutral Density filter. For this kind of work, I want more time – but the amount varies. I always shoot multiple frames of each scene at different shutter speeds (sometimes this means adding a second ND filter).
Different shutter speeds make a huge difference! Consider this scenario: you’re in a field with a few trees along the edges. The wind is blowing in light gusts, with periods of calm in between. You can actually see the gusts coming along the field toward you. A shutter speed of, say, 1 second may capture the actual ripple in the grass caused by the gust, while a shutter speed of 5 seconds may blend all the ripples together into a constant sheet of movement.
Of course this technique works well with water, too – and not just waterfalls, but streams, ponds, and the surf as well. Adding time to any of these will soften the look and create great captures.
So as spring comes to the northeast, I’ll be heading out as much as possible looking for motion to capture. Give it a try!
