The C Train in Motion

Here, I panned with the one of Calgary’s C Train cars as it moved out of downtown towards the southern reaches of the line.  I used a longer exposure, 1/4 of a second, to really stretch the lines of light and dark in background.  Usually I pan the trains at between 1/10 and 1/20 of a second as that allows for decent blur streaks in the background and achieving a sharp subject (the train or sometimes its occupants).  Longer exposures can end up a blurry mess quite easily.  In this image, my panning matched the train’s movement pretty well so outline at the front of the vehicle is clearly that of a train.  Not sharp but I think there is a good balance between the background blur and the lines and edges of the train.  I think there is a lot of movement in this photo which was my intent.