How do you capture a sense of motion in an image? One of my favorite methods, panning, involves tracking a moving subject with the camera set at a slow shutter speed. The results can be a bit unpredictable, but are usually fun, like these images of a Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) coming in for a landing this past weekend.
In this case, the shutter speed ended up being 1/60 of a second. I was shooting in aperture priority, but knew that the shutter speed would be slow, because of the limited light early in the morning. With my telephoto zoom extended to about 550mm, I concentrated on trying to do a smooth pan handheld. My biggest challenge turned out to be keeping the goose centered in the frame.
None of these images are perfect, which is typical of most of my panning efforts, but there are elements of each of them that I really like. Photos like these remind me that it’s ok sometimes to have photos that are not perfectly in focus.
If you haven’t tried this technique, I highly recommend it, especially if you like “artsy” images.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
So cool! Thank you for sharing your technique for capturing these images. Your photos really do convey a feeling of motion!
Beautiful Mike.
Thanks, Dan.
Kudos for you in trying to learn this technique. It isn’t easy to do, and to do well. Love the first one.
There is a lot of hit-or-miss involved in panning, but it’s something that I love trying to do. Geese are a perfect subject for me, because they fly relatively slowly and in a predictable way.
Excellent “action” shot !
Thanks. I love trying all kinds of different ways to capture subjects.
Fantastic!
Thanks, Sally.
You can certainly see motion in these shots. I don’t take photos of many birds or animals so I’m usually doing all I can to stop the motion of wind blown plants and flowers.
Love it — subtle color and flowing background.