Here’s a question. How do you exemplify movement when the medium you’re using is completely static? Ummm... Make the subject look like it’s going so fast that it’s impossible for it to be tack sharp. Make it blurry in other words.

Okay, I’m not meaning make it look completely blurry. Make portions of it look blurry. For example, pretend for a moment you’re standing still. Then, wave your arms up and down like you’re flapping. What would be blurry and what would be sharp? Well, pretty much any of the moving parts--the arms. How about this situation. Pretend your dog just got out of the pool and begins to shake from nose to tail. When he’s still shaking at the nose, the tail hasn’t started yet, what’s sharp and what’s not? His nose is clearly blurry while his tail is tack sharp.

If you shot an image at each of those moments, what message would it convey? The message would be “movement”.

It’s natural to see blurriness when seeing objects move. That’s just the way things are. Tack sharp images of high intensity subjects tend to be more surreal than those that betray a little of their speed. Razor sharp images of long jumpers frozen in time at their peak movement are a bit conceptual. They seem frozen impossibly in their positions forever which is clearly not natural. For me, these types of images require a bit of specific thought to make them approachable. There’s something to overcome when viewing them to avoid having them be placed in the totally contrived box.

Now we know blurriness is a fact of life and we should expect it whenever we look at images of fast moving subjects. How do I effectively use this information when shooting images? What do I do out in the field that takes advantage of this information? Good question?

As a general practice when shooting nature subjects you need to remember one thing--keep the eye sharp. When you’re trying to decide where to focus or what to focus on, it’s usually the image’s downfall if the subject’s eye isn’t sharp. I guess there’s several reasons for this. Without getting bogged down, let’s assume this is true. When you’re in the mode of trying to display movement by having your subject be a bit blurry, it still works better if you keep the eye sharp. Even though the animal maybe moving a million miles per hour, having the eye sharp makes the image vastly more approachable than not. How do I do that when the subject is moving in front of me in a flash? That’s what we’re here to talk about--Pan Blurs.

Pan blurs are simply images where the subject is mostly blurry save for a single item or interest point that is tack sharp. The photographer is able to make these by tracking the interest point while moving his camera at the same direction and speed when the exposure is being made. You’re thinking to yourself “sounds simple enough, what’s the big deal? If it wasn’t much of a big deal, everyone would be doing it.