Ghost Lion at twilight.....

[Butlerkid]

I like it.

Thanks, Ira!!

Its beautiful Karen!
Cant come with so much input thou my experience is limited with these kind of shots.

Glad you like it!

Fantastic eyes, I like the motion on the rest of the lion. Thanks for sharing. I shall try on other animals.

With this technique, the eyes are critical. I had a lot of shots where the eyes lacked definition. It all came together in this shot!

@Butlerkid Marvelous image, conveys the mystique to me that jungle animals have! I wonder if the technique was tripod or handheld? I realize the answer for 1/8 sec is usually tripod but you did say "Experimenting." Further did you pan the camera slightly during the 1/8 sec b/c the head seems to stay in focus even with the lion's forward motion? With shutter at 1/2 sec, I would guess you would certainly 'pan' with the lion's motion. But with a lion in motion how much time do you really have to experiment? 2 secs MAYBE?? All the more reason to admire your photo as beautiful and certainly unique. Thanks for sharing and giving us things to think about.

This was hand held. The lion was walking at a medium pace along the shore and I just tried to keep the lion on the left of the frame to give space in the direction he was walking. We actually have about 60 seconds to shoot, but the background changed quite a bit during that time.

Nice image Karen. I like to see panning when used with wildlife, it often makes the image become more alive.

Thanks! The steady pace of the lion made this a bit easier! LOL! Sometimes the legs blurred together, the eyes washed out, or the background was distracting, etc. This was the best of the bunch!

 

[JAS]

Wonderful image. Well conceived and executed. Keep up with your experiments.

 

[Butlerkid]

Wonderful image. Well conceived and executed. Keep up with your experiments.

Joe, thanks for much for commenting! I really appreciate the encouragement!

 

[JohnW]

Before our 4th trip to Africa, I wrote down one photography goal: to experiment with slow shutter speeds to show motion in a wildlife subject. Advice from @Steve was a big help... he is SUCH a great teacher!

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Nice , very difficult technique to get down. Have been trying something similar , panning waves at 1/3 - 1/8 sec. a la Mark Metternick, but have been very frustrated so far.

 

[JAS]

Joe, thanks for much for commenting! I really appreciate the encouragement!

You are welcome. I have many shots that look like this but they were all unintentional.

 

[marc]

Well done Karen.
The light takes this up a notch, although @ 1/8 s it appears he was walking? To have more motion blur, specifically in the legs we needed him in a canter at least.
The slower the pace of your subject, the slower the S/S and smooth panning effort required to initiate good blurred movement.

A fine pan blur nonetheless.

 

[Butlerkid]

Well done Karen.
The light takes this up a notch, although @ 1/8 s it appears he was walking? To have more motion blur, specifically in the legs we needed him in a canter at least.
The slower the pace of your subject, the slower the S/S and smooth panning effort required to initiate good blurred movement.

A fine pan blur nonetheless.

Thanks, Marc! Yes he was briskly walking. I didn't want the legs more blurred....this is just what I was working for.

 

[jhorsch]

Karen, I think it's very good. Leaving for Africa next month myself and this has been a good reminder of one way to expand my (still developing) technique.

 

[ssheipel]

Wonderful. Print it huge!