PHOTO OF THE WEEK Motion sense

This photo by Don Leach of a cyclist riding by a wall of tiles is a classic example of a “panning” shot. Leach purposely set a slow shutter speed to allow for some blurring. He picked his spot, in this case a colorful wall, then waited for a cyclist to pass in front of it.

As the person went by, the photographer moved the camera lens to match the speed of the bicycle. The shutter speed was fast enough to freeze the cyclist, but slow enough to allow the background to blur as the camera moved. The technique allows the viewer to “see” the movement. A fast shutter speed would have frozen everything in the image. The viewer would have to assume the cyclist is moving, and the key element of the colorful blur would have been absent.

— Kent Treptow