Images captured earlier this month on an early frosty morning have proven to be some of my most popular and favorite images to date.  The original post drew my highest number of blog readers and many compliments.  The greatest compliment however, came from my biggest fan.  After seeing the below image, Cody said, “It’s so good it doesn’t look real; it looks like a painting.”

 I took that as my invitation to ramble on in excitement how I manipulated my camera’s settings to capture a static image which appears to have movement.  You can almost convince your mind that the water is flowing, the steam rising, and the limbs bending with the weight of frost.  After I finished, he said, “you should share how you did that.”  I told him I thought it would make for a good blog post, so here goes! :-]

I’m proud of this photo and owe the know-how to achieve it from the many photography blogs and articles I have read to better learn my camera’s capabilities and setting adjustments.  One article read many months ago was about capturing water movement, specifically, waterfalls, and it has always stuck with me and something I wanted to give application to. 

Capturing movement requires a slow shutter speed, but the lower the shutter speed, the more light enters the camera.  A very slow shutter speed quickly floods the camera with light and results in a blown out image.  So the other settings have to be manipulated to reduce the light coming in.  Aperture must be low while the ISO high.  [Now, I am not a camera techy.  I work to better understand my equipment and to improve my photography.  No less, no more.  …and this concludes the techy portion of this post.]

I probably took a couple dozen images adjusting my settings one way or another many times over.  Those posted on March 7 were my favorite captures.  Some of you from the area I am sure recognize this location.  After returning home and reviewing my images, I was very excited.  I achieved what I had set out to capture that morning. 

I’ve entered the above image into an online photo contest, so soon I’ll be sending out the “please go vote” messages.  Voting opens April 1st.  Hope you’ll humor me! 

Happy voting!  

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