Appreciate the encouragement, Tony. Re 'Nick' Nichols, it would appear his work (referring to the 'Megatransect' project that resulted in the NG book, The Last Place On Earth) was controversial and not unanimously supported within NG. I assume this because he dedicates the book to his NG picture editor for her support and 'protection'(his word!). Also, the author of the forward (don't remember his name at the moment) goes to, IMHO, great lengths in 'explaining' Nichols work, using words like 'urgency' and 'political' etc. vis a vis logging devastation of the rain forests, loss of species etc., possibly anticipating that many folks might be confused or put off by the style.

All of that is fine and may or may not accurately reflect what was really going on with Nichols. Apparently Nichols became very ill with hepatitis during this project. One of my random fantasies was that his images (again, I'm referring only to those in this book) had the appearance of being shot by a photographer who was both impaired (by illness) and desperate (possibly due to the NG administrative demands of the project, for personal reasons or, in my imagination, due to the immense physical stresses involved). But... I don't really know for sure and that may be part of what got my attention. As I said, some of his images got into my head and wouldn't go away. The influence was positive in that it stimulated me to, as you said, 'learn, grow and have fun.' Plus, it's one 'big picture book' around the house that I've returned to several times as contrasted with others which I enjoyed once.

As an aside, I put this book out in the reception area of my office for some months and was interested to observe that many people spent time looking at the pictures and commented that they really liked the book. Interesting.

James - The article in the September 2007 issue of Outdoor Photography features images by Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting, David Muench and Mark Muench. The techniques covered include:
1. Subject Blur: long exposure, stationary camera - including the use of ND filters in bright sunlight where normally it would be impossible to get a slow enough shutter speed to blur motion and not wind up with an impossibly over-exposed image. Also discusses making people who are moving through a scene disappear by using this technique.

2. Pan Blur: long exposure, moving camera - with comments about image stabalization systems which generally should be turned off (or a special setting used) if using a tripod and turned on if the camera is hand-held.

3. Zoom Blur: stationary camera and subject, moving lens - generally using exposures in the 1-2 sec range and timing the pause during the zoom to capture the subject in focus while everything else is blurred.

4. Flash Blur: combines brief flash and longer ambient light exposure with near-by subjects.

In the first shot above with the Magpie in the right side of the frame I used a simple hand-held pan blur and a slow shutter speed (enhancing the blur in PSCS2). The other three images involved slower shutter speeds.

I wonder if anyone else has some examples they might post here for discussion??