Adventures in Pan Motion Photography

Perhaps this is a case of being conditioned by a lifetime of car ads in magazines and epic racing photos. A predisposition for blurry things encasing something hopefully crisp or in my case hopefully just less blurry. That could be the reason I undertook this adventure in pan motion photography.

Perhaps though, it was something more. As I stood on the side of the road, camera in hand waiting for a likely target I realized why I was there. Fear. The line that one must cross every time venturing into the unknown.

Sometimes it's worse than others, the easier it seems the less likely I am to hesitate to try. This was something different. This had layers of fear. Layered like the streaks of bokeh that tell the story in these frames.

First of all, I was in Boston. People have been known to get out of their car and throw down in Beantown for far less than a camera. They were the target, I'd have to aim right at them to get the shot.

Not only that, I'd have to look like a total noob who has never held a camera before as I swing the lens from side to side at each passing car, a rapid fire series of shutter click giving me away to all the passerby on the path along the Charles River. I can see it in some of their eyes, a few I can tell are holding back stopping to say, "you're gonna get wicked blurry pictchas if ya keep movin' ya camera like that". But that's the point.

To do what seems wrong, to go against the norm and just make that shit work. As my technique improved the focus on my subjects grew. My focus on the fear of looking like a camera swinging freak and getting a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee thrown at me faded away with every press of the shutter. It was on, the process was in full swing and art was being made.

I even got deep enough in to the process to capture this guy in all his two-wheeling glory.

Never let fear stop you from creating.

Shot on a Canon 70D with a Sigma 17-50 f2.8, freehand.