Motion Blur Street Photography (Ricoh GRIII)

A short episode where I spent the morning and afternoon practicing motion blur street photography with my Ricoh GRIII and Fuji XT5.
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#streetphotography #japan #photography

[@priy2273]

like the Intro, and The result

[@jamesford_jp]

Thank you!

[@wpickle]

Nothing makes me sick with nostalgia more than the sound of Japanese pedestrian lights.

[@jamesford_jp]

I feel you on that! For me, it’s gotta be the cicadas in the summer though…

[@marving1416]

I was at a Botanic Garden a few years ago and did this with flowers. Just to do something different.

[@jamesford_jp]

Yeah, sometimes just doing something different is enough to change things up!

[@RolandKaufmann]

Masterful intro, James! I definitely mix in a few slow shutters on a day out. Keeps me interested in otherwise not interesting scenes (like you said).

[@jamesford_jp]

Thank you! Yeah, it’s a fun way to keep things fresh and interesting for sure 😊

[@monikabrandenstein5011]

First of all, thank you for this inspiring video. I enjoyed following you and your camera/s with attentive eyes (and ears). I really like these types of photos, and not just since I started taking photos myself. Maybe it's because I also pursue another creative activity - painting. These motion blur photographs are definitely comparable to paintings. They are pure ART - photographs with an immense thematic aesthetic. Kind regards - Monika.

[@jamesford_jp]

I’m glad you enjoyed it, Monika! That’s so cool that you also enjoy painting as well! While I’m no painter, another creative activity I’ve enjoyed since childhood is writing-short stories, fiction, journaling, etc. I can honestly probably attribute my interest in documentary-style photos and capturing details about present-day life and the environment we live to my love for world-building and journaling from writing since I was a child :) It’s interesting how our different interests can impact and influence other passions.

[@monikabrandenstein5011]

@@jamesford_jp I agree with what you say. If you have the gift of empathy, you can feel the influence of multiple creative passions and their interaction when you look at it. It's great what you do, writing down, capturing, documenting and transforming your own experiences into stories - perhaps enriched with fiction - and with this talent I think this influence will always be visible in your photographic work. Since I discovered poetry as a form of expression alongside painting at about the same time, this genre also influences my other creative passions. So my experience is that some people who look at my photos see this connection to poetry. It's wonderful when you can discover these creative abilities within yourself and, in a second or third step, bring them outward, perhaps with the intention of inspiring other people.

[@jamesford_jp]

Very much agreed. I think when you look at lot of people’s art, whether it be photography or something else, you can always see the sum of who they are as a person and their passions through it.

[@series25a]

What’s your color grading tips??

[@jamesford_jp]

Really depends on the photo which makes it hard to advise in the comments. Just try to get as much right in-camera as possible and for color grading, less is more.

[@atandon6003]

Great video james. Will head out this weekend to give this a whirl. Question though. While shooting I 1/8, do u keep the camera perfectly still or are you tracking the motion of the subject in focus as well. Assuming you are keeping still, I am guessing the background is also blurred is because the lens or body lack stabilization? With some kind of stabilization i would expect the background to not be blurred

[@jamesford_jp]

Nah, not stationary. I was panning with the GR while with the XT5 I kept it still, hence the difference in photos. I wanted to try different techniques and styles, so the results were the photos were all over the place haha