Day before yesterday I spent an hour or so wandering around the Creamer’s Field Waterfowl Refuge not far from downtown Fairbanks. It is a place I know well. Most of the winter’s snow has now turned to water and the usually dry sloughs and low areas are filled with water. The birds too are arriving and Canada and Greater White-fronted Geese are abundant in the fields. First I pursued some birds with the big glass, getting a few OK shots of Common Goldeneyes. After the birds moved off I too began to wander. I crossed over a small bridge over a slough where the very slowly moving water reflected the cottonwoods. I spent 10 minutes on the that bridge, only moving the direction of my camera. After looking at the images, I found the evolution of the photos interesting. Here is a series in chronological order:
This is the first image I made, a simple reflection of the trees in the water. The ripples were created by the breeze. Basic and simple and not terribly creative
The ripples in the water inspired me to add a little motion myself so I adjusted my shutter speed down to 1/6th of second and did a short vertical pan blur. This added a bit more abstract feel to the image.
Next I wanted to take advantage of the rippling water so I slowed my shutter speed again to 1/3 sec. and allowed the water to ripple during the exposure as I held the camera, more or less steady (as steady has hand holding with a slow shutter would allow anyway).
Even slower. I adjusted down to 1.3 sec exposure, this time tripod mounting to keep a steady platform. I don’t really like this one. It mostly just looks blurry and upside down, a confusing image.
Abandoning the above strategy I went a step further into abstraction by selecting the reflection of an isolated tree and making a fast pan blur at 1/4 second exposure. Interesting result, but I can’t decide whether I really like it or not.
Until this point, I’d been working with the reflections and largely ignoring the trees themselves. So I made a few simple vertical pan blurs, first with a horizontal frame.
The trees however were vertical so I changed my composition to a vertical frame, which I like a bit better.
The striped trees in the earlier images were kind of cool, but I’d made similar images in the past. Nothing new there. So I tried a simple up, then down motion over the course of a 1/5 sec exposure. The result is my favorite image of the day. The image retains enough detail that the subject, the stand of trees, is clear. And yet the zigs of light make the photo almost painting-like. I’ve never made an image like this before, and I very much like the result.
Explore your subjects. Spend time with them, experiment. Your best image will almost never be your first.