Watching Wind (+ some more blurry photos)
This post is from Late August, but I never posted it fully. Warning, there may be typos! And lastly, I’m making more things…
These are hard to keep up with on the side…. But I want to put out two little threads of technique that I have been working with and enjoying thoroughly. Art has, for a while, been a tool of expression for me. An outlet unlike anything else for the most part. My photography is one of the only forms of art I regularly ‘share; with the world. Working within that medium, sometimes I struggle to fully, or even partially, capture or convey the emotion or feeling I am trying to get express. The photos from the ongoing two series I have been collecting have been working better than some of my previous styles in this aspect. Both incorporate blur and motion. Okay, probably easier to show than tell…
Here is the first series in progress, Watching Wind, or something like that. As you can see the photos are still untitled. Make sure to click on the photos to view them full screen and get all the details. Anyways, I started with this idea by accident, like all good art, back in 2020 in the ‘intro to photography class. I was doing one-minute exposures of trees in the wind and one shot, in particular, was a standout because of the balance between motion and blur, and detail so the viewer was still somewhat oriented. Then, just a few days ago laying watching the leaves, I wanted to capture the motion of the wind, I thought back to the photo I made two years ago, then had an idea. Photo stacking is a technique you can use with digital images to create the effect of a long exposure even in well-lit situations.
These are 30-50 images each, all hand-held, that were stacked and aligned in photoshop, then lightly edited. The software does a remarkable job of aligning the image so the parts that didn’t move over the duration of the series are relatively crisp, while the blowing leaves are blurred and in motion. It has been very fun to experiment with and see the results, especially since all of these were done with my phone camera out on walks or in the yard.
So that’s the technical ramble, but it helps explain my process, which is something I want to do here so I can keep a record of my evolution over time as an artist. The next series is far more simplistic in the way of the process. It requires darkness, some lights, ~1-2 second shutter speed, and just the right amount of unsteadiness. All the images are purposely blurred with movement, except one, with is blurred with a defocused look instead, but I’m lumping it in here because it has a similar feel.
Here is the first image. It, like all of its peers, is untitled for now. This image also stands out as the only shot done in portrait orientation. Throughout the series, I have also pushed the editing boundaries a bit too. I have accentuated the colors of the images to strengthen the feel of liminality and slight otherworldly-ness, along with the blurred, off-kilter view. Most of the other ones, like this photo, is not so blurry that you can’t tell what the image is off, but enough to not be able to pick out fine details. Like in a dream, or while running from something, or when you are very tired, etc. I love how, for me, these deliver a sense of discomfort, maybe some urgency, disorientation, or general unease.
While that is a list of primarily negative things, since when did art need to be pretty? Isn’t the best work of art ones that break out of the reaffirmation of your biases and beliefs? Art that makes the viewer uncomfortable, and can push them to look at the world differently, is the most important art in my opinion. I don’t think that these images necessarily do that entirely, but for me, they are expressing a set of feelings through artistic and technical practices in a way that I am very happy with.
