John M. Setzler, Jr. Life in Black and White

I went downtown this evening to make a shot for my Photo-A-Day project.  I wanted to do something with a long exposure and the zoom lens.  I started out shooting at this clock with the neon band around it and couldn't really come up with a composition I liked.

This technique is one of those hit-and-miss situations.  It's difficult to get things to come out like you have pictured in your mind.  The most difficult part of this process is being able to keep the camera steady while you are turning the zoom during the exposure.  I set the camera on the tripod and composed the scene.  I set the aperture to f/32 and the ISO to 100.  I set the shutter to bulb mode and used my cable release to open the shutter.  I twisted the zoom and used the cable release again to close the shutter. 

I ended up using THIS photo as my image for the day, but I'm going to spend a little more time playing with the idea on some other subjects.  I can see some opportunities to use a flash in this technique as well... maybe even coupling it with the multi flash mode that I used on the flag in my previous blog entry...