Moving Camera

Inspired by the abstract results obtained by the daring
photographers here at camera toss,
a few months ago I made 'Moving Camera' an educational
exercise for the other photographers at an online forum
where I host an assignment series.
Learning a few new tricks from their efforts, I was ready
when my friend Matthew of Robertson Photo re-used the
idea for his assignments on another forum.

The basic idea is exposure times of a few seconds, and either
random or controlled movement of the camera to create new and
often surprising abstract images.

For the first one I put a red keychain light and a blue/white
LED flashlight on a table with black paper background, then
tripped the shutter and moved my F717 in a zigzag pattern,
creating something that reminded me of the aurora borealis.


These next three were made with my light sources on the table
and a Sony H1 on a turntable (for smoother movement) across
the room.
For this one I propped-up one side of the camera to create
an angular streak effect. I called it 'Re-Entry'.




For this last photo I let the camera sit for a second to
fully expose the candle before starting to rotate the
turntable.
(Click on photos to enlarge)
It was fun experimenting in a new direction, and inspiring
others to try new things, too.
We all learned something in the process of sharing our methods
and results, but Matthew was the only one of us who was brave
enough to actually toss a camera.