Yes, We Do Our Own Stunts

All right, really there were no stunts required for these next pictures. It was just Travis experimenting with what special effects he can do with his camera. He's been interested lately in composing more artistic shots that aren't so much about capturing an image in perfect focus, but the overall mood and feel they give. It's been interesting and actually produced some pretty cool and unique shots. So, here's my faves from the new techniques....

Here Trav is zooming while taking a shot, which, with when done right, gives you lines all leading your eye right to the center and the main subject, Noah. And even though he's not in focus, it gives a nice feeling. I think this is how parents see their children, tunnel vision! :)

Sometimes, this zooming thing can also give you the cool effect of having one thing in focus, like a face, and the rest of the picture blurred and adding a sense of motion to the shot. I mean, in this shot, can't you just feel the running like you were doing it?

Then there's taking a picture with a long shutter speed and moving the camera, panning, during the exposure. And you end up with something like this:

I love this one myself! Makes me think of an impressionistic painting or something. And, it's how childhood should look, happy kids running by in a blur against a colorful background.

Or in this one, it just helps give you a sense of the wind in your hair and gives the swinging some movement lines.

Another cool effect Trav's been experimenting with is a modified double exposure. So for these next pictures, he set his camera for a long exposure, leaving the shutter open, and then making the flash fire at the end, which grabs a second image. In this case, Travis wanted to get both the kids in a shot, even though they were several feet apart at the time.

At first glance, it may seem like a mistake, but its pretty cool, gives a kind of ghostly feel.

I love this one! Noah better get used to having his sister over his shoulder, literally and figuratively!

It almost looks like something you would have to do in photo editing software, like Photoshop, so it's cool that you can do this with the camera.

This one is great too, Bree in two places at once.


Of course, Travis still takes great shots with his usual crystal clarity too, so since it's been awhile since I've posted pix, here's a few shots of the kids looking cute in focus.

And then there's me. Yep, this is about the extent of stunt work I do, smirking. Hey, it's hard work but someone has to do it!