The Everlasting Motion of the Tide

It's 7am on a cold and drizzly late September morning and I've just dropped step daughter to the train which hopefully will convey her to her second day at college where she is beginning a degree course in English and Media Studies. Round the corner is our South Beach, not very welcoming at such an hour of such a morning. However, I remember a bit of correspondence with a fellow blipper the other day regarding motion in still photography and I was saying that rather than attempting to keep the camera steady and let nature and the wind do their things, there is another way. So, for this shot, I decided to put my money where my mouth is. All I have done is to pan the camera while making a longish exposure.
Normally one would pan, ie sweep the camera from one side to the other with a reasonably fast shutter speed in order to track a fast moving object such as a race car. By releasing the shutter at the mid point of the swing one can freeze the motion of the car while blurring the background, thus enhancing the sense of speed. The background will blur of course because, relative to the motion of the camera it appears to be rushing past even quicker than the car. Now, if you think about it for a minute, you don't actually need the car at all. In order to show deliberate blur, in the sea for instance, just pan as you would with a race car. In the example above I was faced with a pretty dark muggy morning so that even at 400ISO I was getting a shutter speed reading of a longish 1/10th sec at f10 which actually was a bonus. The shutter was going to be open for a relatively long time which ensured a nice fluid blurry impression of movement which I think is quite appropriate when one considers that the ocean is constantly ebbing and flowing. It never stands still. The Everlasting Motion of the Tide.

Of course there is a Photoshop way of achieving the same effect. It's not as much fun. Maybe I might describe it tomorrow.