Project 52 - Movement ~ Vancouver area pet photographer

The Project 52 theme this week is Movement.

I had an idea right away for what I wanted to try this week. A couple of years ago I took some photos of Rivet catching treats. This is a little bit technical but I was using first curtain sync, which caused the blurred areas (or ghosting) show the movement that happened after the flash fired. This almost makes her look like her head is going backwards rather than forwards. At the time I was unable to figure out a way to get my camera/flash combination to switch to rear curtain (or 2nd curtain) sync.



I have a different camera now, as well as a different flash, so I thought that I would be able to do it differently this time. That didn't quite work out... I can't use rear curtain if I have my flash off of my camera, so I suspect my trigger system is the problem, but I could use it if I had my flash on the camera. Ah well, life isn't perfect...

The other problem I ran into is that my dog, Caiman, is too old to catch tossed treats anymore. His reaction time just isn't fast enough anymore. So I did what every good photographer would do. I improvised. Peanut butter faces are always funny, whether the flash works right or not.

So, here are three photos using the motion blur I was hoping for. The last photo is a close up of the one beside it, so that you can see how the photo shows a blur where his tongue was before the flash fired.


Finally, I got rid of the blur altogether and froze his tongue movement. These are more my style but the whole process has been fun!


This Project 52 is a group project. Please visit all the other talented pet photographers (starting with Sharon Stokes Photography, Central Coast Pet Photographer) by following the links at the bottom of our posts. After browsing through all the other entries you will end up back here.

Tracy Sutherland Photography specializes in timeless classic representations of the pets that enrich our lives. Tracy lives in Sea to Sky country north of Vancouver, BC, Canada, and works in Whistler, Squamish, and Vancouver.