Something new

I've been wanting to try a new technique for my motion photos. Normally I photograph a scene one way, either vertically or horizontally depending on which direction the dominant lines of the scene "flow". Trees usually work best as verticals and water or distant landscapes often work best as horizontals. But the idea has been growing in my head that I should try photographing a scene in several different ways, then combine portions of them so that each part of the scene uses motion strokes that emphasize the subject in that area. Of course it was midnight or thereabouts when I decided to actually try this, and so I couldn't just run out and take some new photos. So I found a scene that I had shot a while back and worked with what I had. This was a winter scene with snow on the ground and ice floes in the Missouri River at sunset. I like the results; the grass in the foreground and trees on the far side of the river work best with vertical strokes, and the river has nicely irregular wavy strokes that really are a great interpretation of the flowing water.

Misty sunrise

Here is another Missouri River panoramic. Hopefully we will have more mist and fog as the weather changes.

Missouri River panoramic

This past week I have been focused on the idea of doing some panoramic pictures of the Missouri River. Since I have lived within a mile of the river for three years, one would think I would have been doing this all along. I have photographed the river sporadically, but never did any panoramics until now. I went down one afternoon to do a test, then went back the next morning before sunrise. There was fog for a short time, but it dissipated quickly. The local sand dredge has been working this section of the river at Parkville for the past week, so there was no choice involved as to whether to include it. It might look like it's chugging upriver, but it is anchored in place. I like having it in the photo. This photo is a full 180 degree pano, so you see the path (looking downstream) at the far left, and the same path (looking upstream) at the far right. This path is in English Landing Park in Parkville, Missouri for those of you not familiar with the area. The moon is visible in the sky. Hopefully the photo will look nice when you click to enlarge it. I saved this version to display 7 in x 45 in but I see that my browser window has shrunk it. Hopefully your browser will do better.