"Bobbing Blues" Photo

Photographer’s Note

It was late evening, just around the "blue hour" and the waters of Venice were causing the gondolas to bob up and down in the small waves. I set my aperture at f22 for maximum depth of field, which gave me a slow speed of 3 secs. ISO was set at 400 to provide me a slightly quicker speed. I was happy with the result as I was after the blurred effect in the line of gondola heads, which were nicely lit by the light.
Again no tripod was used, only the available old wooden rail near-by.

rikko77, Dpbours, mondele, feather, alainh, happypoppeye, paololg, dip, avene, Royaldevon, ribeiroantonio, chpp, chrisnet, Flavia has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

avigur_11 (21293) 2008-12-20 2:39

Hi Grant,
Fantastic effect of motion blur, and wonderful hues of blue. I got a different pucture from the same place:
http://www.trekearth.com/viewphotos.php?l=5&p=220622
Have a nice weekend
Itzik

JLG (2086) 2008-12-20 2:48

hello Grant
une belle photo prise a l'heure bleu
joli l'effet des gondoles avec la pose longe
et ensemble donne une belle ambiance
great shot
jean louis

eversmile (6163) 2008-12-20 2:52

Hi Grant

That's excellent! I love the blur, the strong feeling of sway, and the deep blue of the boats. The graphism is very effective with your choice of POV. Bravo!
Regards
Marine

silverhead (1640) 2008-12-20 3:06

Hi Grant, I love this photograph!! Excellent colors and POV!! Great framing and motion effect. Congratulations.
Köksal

yquem46 (8010) 2008-12-20 3:22

Hi Grant
Original picture with those blurred gondolas following the movement of waters
regards
Patrick

rikko77 (6166) 2008-12-20 3:49

Hi Grant, a very "musical" shot, I find the title you chose is perfect for this one. Long exposure, colors, the idea were simply great. Cheers,

Rikk

Clementi (44215) 2008-12-22 14:25

Ciao Grant,
a very beautiful vision of these gondolas that they dance under this beautiful sky.
compliments
Giorgio

Dpbours (220) 2008-12-24 5:43

Hello Grant,

The movement is really nice here!!
A nice combination with the blue hour. No Christmas colours really, but Merry Christmas wishes from the Netherlands!

Greetings, Dennis

CaesarP (3620) 2008-12-28 11:55

Hello Grant,
very moving picture, nice impact and very imaginative.
Have a great 2009 !
Regfards Caesar

mondele (711) 2008-12-30 23:50

Bonjour Grant,
Choix judicieux d'un vitesse lente car l'effet est très réussi. J'aime beaucoup la composition.
Meilleurs Voeux pour 2009.
Philippe

feather (49862) 2008-12-31 5:53

Your slow shutter speed has had a very creative effect on the bobbing gondolas. Also your POV, making good use of perspective and repetition, works well in your composition.
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Kath

marietom (31974) 2009-01-04 12:58

hello Grant,

Superbe composition, bien graphique, et joliment bleue.
Bonne soirée
Marie

alainh (35371) 2009-01-05 21:13

hello Grant
the 3 seconds are a good idea !!
the gondolas seems dancing ! and the good hour for capture such a picture.
all the Best, Grant for this new year.
Friendly
alain

happypoppeye (4060) 2009-01-07 20:22

Hey Grant,
Long time no talk. I see you have traded up to a 30D. How do you like it. Great looking portfolio!!! This is a classic and you have done it very well. Love the movement of the gondolas, I can hear them slapping up and down right now. It's a great shot.

One question - are you framing these before resizing them? - you see how the "pinstripe" line on teh top and left is thinner than the bottom and right.
Great work
John

paololg (13761) 2009-01-08 14:35

Ciao Grant,
beautiful image, with a pleasant feeling of the movement due to the good choice of the photographic setting. Stupendous the blue light that colour the whole image. You have done really an excellent work, compliment!
Ciao
Paolo

dmarizz (2368) 2009-01-13 2:03

Hi Grant,
great idea to "unfreeze the movement" via a long exposure time. It is a pity that you did not have a tripod as these kind of compositions turn out even better with a perfectly still backgroud. In any case it was worth taking and posting this picture! Congratulations indeed, Dario.

dip (12590) 2009-01-14 21:55

Hello Grant,
beautiful photo with interesting motion effect and nice blue tones,
well seen and composed,
Greetings,
Dimitris.

avene (11018) 2009-01-15 11:57

hello Grant,
interesting effect here, never thought such a motion blurr would look so nice :) but then again, the strong blue colour, street lamps and strong perspective certainly add to the scene, creating very pleasing and dreamy overall result, I rather like it.

regards,
Kristine

Royaldevon (5934) 2009-01-18 1:27

Hello Grant,

This is so effective!
Your slow shutter speed really has captured the movement of the gondolas.
Your pov makes a good diagonal composition of the prows.
I like the over effect of the 'blue'.

Kind regards,
Bev :-)

hdl (6735) 2009-01-18 9:03

Hi Grant. Original idea. I like the result!

ribeiroantonio (21921) 2009-01-18 20:01

This is a great shot where the sense of motion is clearly present. The sharp background is excellent and adds immensely to the depth. Well done.
Antonio

chpp (3986) 2009-02-01 14:52

hi
excellent compo. I love the light in this shot and the gohst gondoli are great
very nice POV
TFS
C

chrisnet (20376) 2009-02-06 11:03

Hi Grant,
I like this nice perspective and graphism, and the blue atmosphere is very well captured, a good work.
Regards
Christian

jvsb (1360) 2009-02-15 5:42

Hi Grant,

Really nice smoothed out water and gondolas movement!! The colors of the small boats seem to match that of the blue hour while the purples and whites break the coldness of sky and water. Composition is also great, creating depth and including just the right amount of every element. Beautiful!
As for the tech part, I usually find that when you want to freeze movement without too much shutter time it’s best for picture quality to increase a little your aperture instead of increasing iso sensitivity. It wouldn’t make a lot of a difference to you dof with a tripod and focus set to middle ground, or even foreground, since the gondolas are in movement anyway. Noise tends to be more of an issue in this kind of situation, that’s my opinion.

Regards,
Victor

delkoo (34308) 2009-02-25 1:52

HI grant
looking at your photo, one can feel, the move of the waves balancing slowly the gondolas.
I also like the blue tones all around the picture.

best regards
didier

Flavia (10202) 2009-03-26 7:32

Hi Grant,

Beautiful picture. The long exposure add a nice touch of mouviment. The blue tones a re great and the diagonal lining of the boats add deph.

Regards,

Flavia