Re: Frozen action in stereo

[P3D KENNETH LUKER <KLUKER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>*People* are something you don't see frozen ordinarily, and so 
>naturalness is stretched a bit more. Having photos where the people 
>are in natural more-or-less-still positions does seem to be a good 
>idea to reduce this effect.  In other words, when something *very 
>familiar* that ordinarily doesn't hold still is shown frozen, it can 
>look "spooky".  Particularly people who you know and see everyday 
>(moving).

On my last-developed roll, I have two shots that I think turned out 
extremely well.  My two teen-aged neighbors are "into" tae kwan do, 
and I found them in the backyard, each leaping and striking with full 
strength at a padded target held by the other.  They were in full 
uniform and in full sweat.  The rhythmic explosion of foot against 
padding gave a punctuation to the action, so that the moment of 
impact became underscored by the sound.  I grabbed my camera and 
timed the exposure to the sound of the impact.  The result was a pair 
of pictures showing a martial-arts fighter suspended in air, with 
fire in his eyes, focusing all his power on the impact of his foot on 
a target point.  Hair is flying, fists are poised, the twist of the 
floating body shows the intensity of the focused power, and one can 
almost hear the impact!  One shot shows a reverse kick, the other a 
round-house kick.  The pictures have the substance of an illustrated 
manual on how to do the kicks, but they have the emotional impact of 
a real human happening.  (The exposure, incidentally, was at 1/50th 
sec due to low light.  I'm surprised it worked, but it re-affirmed 
the impression that for the moment of impact, all motion stopped 
instantaneously.)

But I also like photos of people doing regular stuff, but frozen.  It 
reminds me of those situations in Star Trek or sometimes in the 
theater on stage, when for most people in view, time and motion is 
somehow frozen, while two or three characters are able to move about 
among the statues, conversing, doing things of which the "frozen"
people are oblivious.  But as in those settings, it is probably best 
to be done only on occasion.  The effect would become trite on stage 
or Star Trek if it were done too often.  

Ken Luker
_______________________________________________________________

Kenneth Luker, Assistant Director
Systems and Technical Services
Marriott Library
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
KLUKER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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