let's ride the carousel...

Experimenting with capturing motion... Comments and suggestions are

appreciated! Thanks! KW

I think this is a rather origanal view of this subject 5/6

To really make something like this work, some element of this shot should be still, and in focus. Here, all your key elements--your riders, their faces, and the carousel is a blur, plus the background is a hot spot with nothing solid for the eye to fix on. Panning with a single rider and allowing the surrounding elements to blur might have been fun. I have tried this exact thing myself with limited success. It seems like it should be easy, and it's not.

To convey motion, I think you did well, you have motion blurs on the outside and the inside. The warm light and the blurs give it a dreamy feel.

 

Perhaps having a tripod on the rotating platform would have anchored something but I doubt the ride operators would allow that... and the riders are still moving up and down... and they are kids, they won't hold still anyway! So I really think this was done about as well as could be given your location.

 

Do you have any shots from the outside? You could try panning the camera, or holding the camera still and let the carousel blur the whole image.

Shaun, thank you!

 

Tom, thank you! I tried to focus on the girl reaching back for her mom, but even she was going up and down... I'll try your tips, and you are right, it isn't easy!!

 

John, the whole carousel was surrounded by a terribly ugly black iron fence, and I couldn't get any shots of the carousel without it. This one was snapped at sunset, which didn't help my exposure any... And do you think I even had the tripod there at all? Ha!

Ah well, just a thought. I thought about a place I went in my childhood and you could get nice shots from the outside there...

 

No tripod??? Sinner!

Very well done. I like it a lot.

Me too!!!

Xiang and Steve, thank you! :) KW

Very interesting image - nice light and colors.

This is an impression, not a documentary photo. There's no need to have any part of it still. You've created the liveliness of kids looking for motion. In fact, some controlled blur on the upper and lower right corners might have enhanced the feel of dizziness I like this photo a lot. Great colors, too.

Inger and Jeff, thank you for your comments! I was pleasantly surprised that I got such positive responses on this image. I love carousels, I have since I was a child. This was an exceptionally beautifully one... :) KW

I love carousels, too. This is very impressionistic, and I like it. Does it seem like an alternate universe to you? Not evil, but other-worldly? Guess I've seen too many Twilight Zone episodes! :-)

 

Best regards,

Tammy

It is like another world, and I have to say, I like it better after not looking at it for a bit. I especially like the little girl reaching out to hold her mom's hand, such a sweet and unexpected gesture! I didn't even realize it until I looked at it whne it was uploaded. It's like the fantasy world of childhood! Thanks for commenting, I appreciate it! :) KW