Back to the pier! I love Santa Monica and my wife and I decided to take our little guy down to the pier to ride the ferris wheel and roller coaster. What a great evening! I used to come ride when I was a little kid so it always gives me a bit of nostalgia to come down and I enjoy sharing that with my kids.
I decided tonight I would try the panning technique. I slowed the shutter speed down and tried to track my son to keep him sharp and let the rest fall out of focus. The challenge lied in the fact that he was one row in so every time he rounded the corner and I tried to lock focus, the bar holding the outside horse would get in the way. “Wait for it….NOW!” by the time the pole moved out of the way, he was nearly perpendicular to me so it was difficult to get him a bit more face forward. I would yell out his name to get him to look and he would finally look after he passed me by! This was the best image of his smiling face of the bunch.
I love the panning technique and will be playing with that more. I keep saying how a daily challenge is helpful, but I’m really getting some from it. With all of the focus on securing an image a day, it’s really forcing me to look at the ‘creatively correct’ exposure (freeze motion, blur motion, tack sharp from to back, blow out the background with dreamy bokeh) because I don’t want every day’s image to look the same.
Shot with Canon 5DmkIII, 50mm f/1.2L, 50mm, f/4, 1/25″, ISO 1600
(PS – I wrote about and published this picture last night. I’m not sure why it didn’t save, but I did get it done! Just noticed it didn’t save so doing it again. I want to say consistent and not fall behind!).
LAMediaMan 