Winter Solstice 2013

The sun is lowest, the night is longest, winter is here. 

Tonight I tried out an old technique by using intentional camera motion (ICM). The concept is to establish the camera settings so as to take a relatively long exposure and then while the shutter is open you intentionally move the camera body to blur the image. The results can be to soften the subject matter and give the photograph an ethereal or impressionistic result. The thing about these types of images is that they are fun to make. There is no pressure or preconcieved notion of what the end result should be. You can work very fast, and the fun of it is to find subjects that produce pleasing results. Today was the winter solstice and the sun was low and further southeast in the sky. This shot was taken near the Tempe Arts Center as the sun was setting. It may look like a fire but it was just the sun slowly moving behind the mountains.