Action Shots

We're at the skateboard park under the Zakim Bridge in Boston with Boston Sand and Gravel Co in the background. Skateboards, Unicycles and Trick Bikes were everywhere. So is the Commuter Rail. Frankly, it’s not a regular hangout for me. But subsets of Travel Photography are lifestyle and street photography. With all this activity and culture happening I am glad I made the trip.

The parks creator, Nancy Schon, was the creator of the “Make Way for Ducklings” sculpture in the Public Gardens and the “Tortice and Hare” sculpture in Copley Square.  She comes up with the idea of the Skateboard Park under the Zakim as skateboarders were doing tricks on the Tortice and the Hair.  She worked with the Charles River Conservatory and funding from “The Lynch Family Trust”.  That’s the same Peter Lynch of Fidelity fame who managed the Magellan Fund. Who knew? 

Back to photography and the concept of capturing and adding motion to shots, a favorite when in a street photography mode. What's not obvious is the skateboarders were barely moving. Nor was the train. Combining the lack of movement with the early evening low light sets the stage with almost ideal conditions. So how does the motion happen? Panning the camera with a slow ISO, small aperture and slow shutter speed gives you the blur.

For these shots we used an ISO 100, an aperture priority at f 11 which drove the camera to longer exposures of either 3/10 or 2/5 second. The rest is fun. Pan level, at a slight angle or even in a slow swirling motion. It’s about the effect rather than capturing detail and painstaking composition.  The train moved opposite the panning motion which artificially increased the trains’ speed.  See that silver streak with a purple line in the center, that's Boston's Purple Line commuter rail.

Website