Sometimes I don’t want to freeze motion entirely in the way that I did in a photo of a Canada Goose landing in the water that I posted earlier today.
Here is another shot of a Canada Goose in which I panned the camera, helping to blur the background, and the slower shutter speed left a certain amount of motion blur in the wings, helping to enhance the impression of speed. My camera was in aperture-priority mode and the shutter speed dropped when the goose that I was tracking flew against the darker background of the trees.
I really like the overall feel of the image, the sense that the goose is straining to slow down as it prepares for landing, but is still moving forward at a fast speed. Is the image “tack sharp?” No, it’s not, but I am happy that it is not—it’s a creative choice. Check out a recent posting entitled “Chasing the tack sharp mirage” by Lyle Krahn, one of my favorite photographers, for a provocative discussion about this topic.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
I read the ‘tack-sharp’ post by Lyle but I must admit I like this image 😀
Great shot! Great choice!
I’m with Lyle-it’s about conveying the beauty that you see around you, and this shot does that very well.
As we’ve been saying, our photographic choices contribute a great deal to the effectiveness of our final images. No one can tell another “That’s good!” or “That’s bad!” If it says what the photographer wanted it to say, that’s what really counts. BTW, I really like this one, too!