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My reason for posting these is simply to hear people's reactions to this style and engage in some relevant discussion. (click to enlarge)






I do sometimes go for this "style" of motion blurring in wildlife shots, but many times it's an after effect of not using fast enough glass or shutter speed as Judi said. I agree with Tony that in many cases it is way over done and alot of it is too fuzzy for my taste.

When I'm intentionally going for this style, the technique I use is to shoot at medium shutter speeds 1/250 - 1/500. For me the CRITICAL thing is that some significant part of the subject is in focus and frozen while the moving parts blur. In the duck below, the head is frozen while the wings are motion blurred. What I get out of the image is a clear recognition of the duck from it's in focus head, but the impact of its powerful wings from the motion blur.



While having a totally blurred subject works sometimes for me (my Irish setter below), in most cases for me, it just says the photographer missed it. So I guess I'm saying that used SPARINGLY, this style can convey the feeling of natural motion. As far as Westin's work goes, I think there is some good stuff there and he has certainly got alot published. But alot of it is lost on me and it's not the style I'm after in most of my photography.