31. Blurry Dog: Behind the Scenes

Breaking out of my mold

Jul 06, 2024

They probably won’t end up in my keepers pile, but I was delighted with my Blurry Dog photos from last week. I felt like I had some success with a look and feel that diverged from my typical urban, still, straight-on, observational photos so I began to wonder how I had managed something so different that worked.

Lightroom time machine

A great benefit of a well-organized Lightroom catalog is the ability to look back in time. Thankfully over the past few years I’ve spent way too much time getting my catalog organized so I dove in.

Experiments started two years ago

About two years ago I started some experiments with motion blur. Like many people starting with motion blur, cars and trains were my starting point—probably because their natural state is: in motion—and they are easy to find.

I got a few good shots—but even with the addition of motion blur the pictures fit right into my typical photographic style.

Caltrain passing through Broadway Burlingame station (only stops there on weekends until they raise the tracks which they need to do because the grade level crossing is so deadly but it’s going to take years and $100s of millions. Hopefully, it will start soon.. but oh, the years of traffic mess that’s coming!)

Combining reflections and motion blur

Outside of this early success most of my results were unremarkable blurry cars and busses. Next I tried combining motion blur with reflections and took about 120 boring frames like this:

I kept working on the idea of motion blur and reflections and had a bit more success with these cars in a backup mirror on El Camino Real—but even with 100s of frames shot, still nothing to write home about.

Burst mode

The one thing I experimented with during many of these shoots was burst mode—holding the shutter button down and letting the camera take up to 11 frames per second.

After these outings I felt like I had tried motion blur so I put it aside and went back to my usual photography.

A happy accident

Then about a month ago I was downloading photos and came across this picture. I didn’t remember taking it so I think it was an accident shutter push while grabbing the camera.1 But, it had great light and colors and just the right amount of blur. I wanted to do more.

So, I set the camera to the same settings and tried to recreate something similar. Again a whole lot of nothing.

Long exposure black & white

Next, when looking for advice on black & white photography I happened on this video where Daren mentions in passing how much long exposure helps black & white (watch at 3:58). I think I was watching this in the background while I did 12 other things but somehow my brain filed away that info.

It all comes together

So when my family’s dog, Charlie, and his walking buddy Tucker were running around the yard I tried to put this all together: I turned on bust mode, set the camera to black and white and locked the exposure at 1/8th of a second.

As the dogs ran around the yard I pushed the shutter, followed them with the camera and prayed.

Nothing.

But then I changed the shutter speed to 1/3 of a second and the magic began to happen.

Five minutes later I had 163 almost identical images to review—and the understanding that with this kind of photography, shooting was only half the battle—now I had to dig through the pile to find the gems.

A new tool

I am glad to now have this photographic tool in my belt to pull out, use when appropriate, and continue to refine. I’m also happy to have something to remind me that I can break out of my mold, try something new, and if it’s not working just keep at it and keep experimenting.

Key lesson: Experiment

Thanks for reading and remember to get out there shoot and experiment. I’d love to hear what you are trying and where it leads you.

Warmly,
josh

p.s. Dog photography on Substack

A fun unplanned thing happened this week—four of us ‘Photostack’ writers happened to publish dog-related articles and influenced each other.

Xavi Buendia

puts it well in his article “Dogs.”

while on a creative rut I came across three articles about dogs from three of my favorite writers on this platform:
Susanne Helmert
’s story on how she became a commercial dog photographer, Bailey Richardson extraordinary features of artists and their pet friends which I highly recommend subscribing to, and Josh Weinberg’s Blurry Dog story that inspired today’s photo essay.