Wisps of Smoke

Photo Experiment #A

Tragic as it may be, we (all of us) are no more than wisps of smoke. We so easily begin to disappear entirely against our sober backdrop of non moving buildings, rocks and trees. It could be argued that in the great scheme of things there seems precious little evidence that we exist at all.

This was shot at 3:57 pm. These people are walking across the pedestrian crossing and (with the aid of a tripod and ND filter) the shutter speed has been wound down to 1.6 seconds. Moments earlier I had tried the same shot at 4 seconds. At 4 seconds exposure, the walkers had disappeared entirely into the ether. No trace at all.

What are ghosts? Are they inhabitants of a parallel universe which we perceive at too slow a shutter speed? Hmm. This isn't a formal challenge but in the next few days why don't you try this photographic experiment in creating ghosts? Let me know you've done it. I'd be delighted to see what you get.