home

__ Action Photography __

Everything around us is constantly in motion. Some things are moving slowly, like a light breeze or a turtles steps. Other things are moving much more quickly like an intense storm or a professional runner. From airplanes to cars to animals and ocean waves, things around us are constantly moving. Photography is a way to capture that motion and put it in a still frame, but just for that quick second. The act of trying to capture this motion in time is called action photography. The whole purpose of a picture is to capture a moment in time. If this picture is a motion picture, which most are, you have to decide which way you want to portray the motion to others. In photography there are two main ways to do so. There is the freezing obvious motion and blurring motion. The most common motion is the freezing motion. Like the name states, the freezing obvious motion is used to capture an obvious motion. For example, when someone jumps their feet come off the ground with them. Capturing that in a picture is an “obvious motion.” Another great example would be driving in a car. You cannot necessarily tell that the car is in motion, but you know by common sense that it is. The blurring motion is often used to remind the viewer that an action is taking place. A great example of this would be flowing water. By blurring this, it gives the extra effect of reality in the picture. One other example would be a bird in flight. Blurring the wings adds the dramatic effect of the strength and speed of the bird. Once it is decided on which motion you would like to capture, a photographer must decide on shutter speed and placement of subject. The shutter speed is the single most important part of taking a motion picture. This will decided whether the image is blurred or not. Next comes the placement. It is always important to make sure the object has room to move in the picture and it is not too close to the edge of the frame. This gives off the idea of a continuing motion instead of a stopping motion. Photography is sometimes looked at as something simple with no thought. But in reality, it takes talent and a lot of time to capture just the right photo.

http://photography.about.com/od/takingpictures/a/actionphoto.htm