Lights Camera Action

This week's blog circle theme is "action."  I have covered this theme in previous blogs, so I decided to take a different slant, based on sets and movies.

I have noticed that "action" does not necessarily mean we see things in motion.  If we did, they would be blurry, so as photographers, we often STOP ACTION, with high camera speed settings.  But the scene depicted in our stop action photograph eludes to action.

For instance, here is a photo that implies action, but the action is stopped.

Yet you still get the idea that the dog is going through the agility poles, very focused on the next place to be.  Many of the photographers I know tend to lean toward stop action, rather than showing motion blur, or marrying them both in an image by perhaps focusing in on the dog's expression and letting other elements blur.  All is dependent upon light, camera settings, and the animal being photographed.

So this week, I decided to become a movie director.  I had an idea, and I needed a few elements:  a nice scene, a star, and some CGI (computer-generated imagery...for me that means "stock" image for composite).

A nice barn and field scene at sunset set the stage for the star, our Lilah, to enter stage right and do her setter thing.  Luckily, Lilah points bugs and butterflies, so the CGI portion came when I needed to go to stock images and find a bird replacement.

The result is below.  Lights...camera...action!  This one is called "The Flush."

To see more lovely imagery and how other photographers handled this week's theme, head to the blog circle, starting with Darlene Woodward of Pant the Town Photography, photographing pets and their families in beautiful New England.  Enjoy your weekend!