Expressions portrait photo #07: Freeze movement

How to freeze the movement in your photos, and make magic!

My stubborn boy. He is typical of his age: not given to narcissism for the sake of the camera; he will make a fabulous photo-bomber when he’s old enough to be strategic about his ludicrous facial expressions and goofy grins. But give him a project and he will apply himself. “I want to try and make fairies. Will you help me?” And so he stood, in a shady corner of the garden, blowing dandelion clocks. Imagination held hostage for a few moments as he checked the camera to see if we had caught them. My patient boy.

To freeze movement and capture so many seeds in this shot I needed a fast shutter speed. To make sure the seeds stood out against the background I used a wide aperture. My settings are below. I’ve seen better versions of this photo, and I’m still trying to perfect it.  What I really need is a darker background, with less detail in it, and maybe further away. This will allow the wide aperture to give me a shallower depth of field, making the seeds stand out more clearly against a blurred backdrop. I also had my drive set to take multiple shots with one click. You wouldn’t believe how many contained no fairies at all.

  • Aperture f/5.6
  • Shutter speed 1/800
  • Zoom 50.0mm
  • ISO 1600

36 thoughts on “Expressions portrait photo #07: Freeze movement”

  1. Boys they really do think differently from girls don’t they!! Great photograph. Now just think how many dandelions you’ll have growing in a few weeks time 🙂

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  2. Great photo! I am going to link up my post from today as I have a very similar photo to yours (no where near as good though)!!

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  3. Thanks for hosting Helen, i am loving your picture i think its so magical to see a dandelion clock in slow motion almost beautiful!

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  4. While it may not be “technically” perfect, I think this is a lovely shot – well done.
    I love dandelion fairy pictures. x

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  5. Despite having a DSLR for a few years, most of that is still gobbledegook to me. I need to spend more time practising with mine. The pictuer looks great to me.

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  6. This is such a lovely photograph Helen! I feel that I am getting the bug, just need to invest in a good camera! Hope you have a lovely week x #Project365

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  7. Oh Helen! Yes yes yes! What an absolutely amazing photograph, such attention to detail and well done to him for being so patient and letting you capture the perfect shot.

    Thanks for linking up to Project 365.

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  8. This is SUCH a fab shot. Fabulous! Not sure if I knew of this linky but I’ll be looking out for it in future. X

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  9. I think you’re right that a darker background would work even better, but this is still a fab shot, I haven’t managed to catch the seeds in any of the photos I’ve tried so far 🙂 I missed the linky again 🙁 I was pottering about on Sunday thinking that I must link up, and then looked at the clock and realised it was already Monday with you! You’d think I’d have got the hang of the time difference by now! Note to self: must do better 🙂

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    • Ah don’t worry Sara, it’s open Friday night to Sunday midnight so whenever you remember is fine, but no pressure x

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  10. I love this photo so much and love that you shared your settings, I am still learning my “big” camera and this is so helpful

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  11. beautiful photo and nice to see it taken from his side too . well done on catching all the little particles as he blew the time x

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  12. LOVE this photo x you are inspiring me to take some better shots of WallyBubba – ones that aren’t just her tantruming or eating pizza… although that is pretty much all she does these days… lol 🙂 xx

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  13. Love this photo of the Bug Helen, perfectly captured! I keep missing Expressions, so sorry it’s such a great idea. I keep remembering when the Linky has closed!

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    • It’s open till midnight Sunday Charly – and you can link any photo post with an expression. Please don’t feel you have to write a specific post just for my linky, it’s designed so most people will have a post they could add from the week before.

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  14. I love this shot. I recently took a similar one of two of my Bean’s blowing the seeds towards each other and I just love it

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