marTin mere in moTion
movemenT shoTs are always difficult to judge. To Blur or not to Blur. And if so how much?

Too little and it looks like a mistake but too much and the whole idea falls apart in a mush.

I tend to err on the 'too much' side!

These bird shoTs, taken at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre near the Lancashire coast exhibit blur in abundance. AnD I must admit that some are only just recognizable as our feathered friends. But that is exactly what I wanted.

Obviously I shot a good number of 'normal' images of flight, behaviour and swans that were just asking to be phoTographed. One of my favourites is of a snoozing Mallard about to be beaten up by a Whooper Swan but you'll have to search elsewhere on site to find ThaT...
All of the shots were taken with a Canon 1Ds Mk2 through either a 300mm or 70-200 f2.8 L series lenses.

I abandoned the tripod in favour of resting the lens on the hide ledge where possible. But perhaps the mad mallards would have benefiTTed from more support to keep the background razor sharp in contrast with the sea of feathery bodies caught at about 1 second exposure.

Shooting in four dimensions like this is challenging, the results can'T be predicted. But that is half the fun, especially when shooting digitally.

I love these shoTs. Perhaps they will never sell, but that's not their purpose. They're strictly for SELF GRATIFICATION!
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