Photography Project 3 - Movement

These are the 4 final images that I have decided to use for Project 3, and I have chosen 2 photographs that explore movements within space (clock and water) and 2 within landscape (gulls and train).

I wanted to go for a theme, to have photographs of similar styles, but I decided against it because I felt it would be kind of repetitive, which is why I have chosen to photograph completely unrelated things, though they do have a link that ties them together.

1. MOVEMENTS WITHIN SPACE

The idea behind photographing the clock came when I remembered how the second hand is consistently moving as time passes by and ticks away. I felt like it was the perfect way to capture ‘movement’ of the physical needle (and of time) within the confines of the path it moves along. Using a longer shutter speed and lower light intensity, I used it to capture the visible movement of the second hand needle so that the movement can be traced. It definitely helped that the second hand was in red, which made its movements trackable.

As for water, I wanted to capture water as something that is always flowing. Water is almost never still, and its shape changes with the path it moves in. It is difficult to catch a stationary frame of flowing water, which made it a challenge, and I decided to photograph it from a slightly elevated angle so that I can capture the different shapes and the freedom in movement of water.

2. MOVEMENTS WITHIN LANDSCAPE

The photographs of the gull and train weren’t extraordinary, but I wanted to have some of movement in the human landscape, and there is nothing more fitting than flying birds and a moving train.

In a similar way of using ‘animate’ objects with the freedom to move, I photographed gulls as a way to connect it to water. I like the blur effect that came with the gulls flying, it a contrast to the focused and unmoving background, and I felt that the perfect way to capture this was through a shorter shutter speed. The effect that came from it was more effective than leaving it for a longer exposure, and the crisp juxtaposition is useful in demonstrating movement.

As for the train, I went with the idea of a moving ‘inanimate’ object travelling along a fixed path, much like the clock. In the same way the second hand needle orbits the face of the clock, the train passes to and fro on its tracks. It is a typical way of showing movement, but like the photograph of the flying gull, the blur that came from the passing train was effective in showing movement against a still landscape, which effectively captured the idea of passing time.