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Counter Pan

Most of us are familiar with the term panning – when we drag the shutter a bit and move the camera with the subject – we want to stay in reality sharpness and blur everything else. Drag the shutter just means to slow down the shutter’s time, for instance setting it at ¼ of a second or slower and increasing the blurriness of all that surrounds the subject you are trying to keep in focus.

Counter panning is the opposite. Instead of following the subject we move the camera in the opposite direction with a slow shutter speed, perhaps 1/30 of a second or slower. The challenge is to keep both eyes open so we can see in this case the car coming from the left and going to the right. My camera was moving from right to left, the opposite way the car was travelling. I hand held the camera and held my breath; timing of course means everything, so as you see the car coming you squeeze the button and keep the camera moving left past the car, do not stop moving the camera after the shutter is pressed.

The image has a unique feeling in relationship to the movement of the car, it stretches and duplicates as you can see in the number 23 blurred and stretched. The wheels have been increased as if there were a number of wheels front and back. The soft blur gives the car a feeling of tremendous speed, with just enough information in the car to see what it is and its purpose, which is to race.

A good friend of mine, Greg, told me that this is one of the best photographs I ever made, and he should know since he is a very good photographer from Regina, Saskatchewan.