Kathy & I spent this past weekend at Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina for their annual Nature Photography Weekend. A good time was had by all, there was a lot of photography going on and we heard a number of inspirational speakers.

One technique that seems to be trendy these days is using motion blur to create painterly and abstract images. William Neill has been doing it for a while and I admire his work. Charles Needle was one of the presenters at Grandfather Mountain, and his presentation inspired me to give it a try.

This was my favorite blur image of the weekend. It had gotten breezy, the sunlight was coming in and out of the clouds, and I liked the parallel curves of these two tree trunks. I made this by setting the lens to an aperture of f22, throwing the trees slightly out of focus, and panning vertically for a 6-second exposure. A polarizer helped slow the shutter speed.

It’s not what I usually do, but it was nice to have options when the conditions got less than ideal. And it was nice to be liberated from the tripod and try something new!