Two seconds

Well, time isn't flying today. It's another wet day - we have monsoon winds and rain forecast for the next few days. I shouldn't complain because we've just had a very long drought, but it sure slows the photography efforts down.

I made the image above for an on-line photographic competition. I don't remember the theme of the competition now, but I do remember that I had to remove my entry before the judging because I inadvertently left my name in the EXIF, which is the file included in a digital image that gives the detail of the image - date, camera, exposure, etc. In this photo competition, the images had anonymous for judging, so I had sabotaged my own entry!

To set up this shot, I mounted my camera on a tripod because the image I imagined would require a time exposure. Also, because I wanted to blur the second hand, I had to use available light, as the very short duration of a flash tends to freeze motion.

Watches are traditionally photographed with the hands in the 10 to 2 position to avoid the watch hands obscuring the brand name and any complicated dials on the watch face. Then I set the camera for a two second exposure and waited for the second hand to approach the top of the watch face. And, bingo! Photographic evidence that a two second exposure lasts for two seconds! Thanks to the slow shutter speed, we have captured the movement of the red arrowhead at the end of the second hand, which blurs across two seconds on the watch face.

EXIF: Nikon D70; Micro Nikkor 105 mm; ISO 200; 2 sec; f11.

TFF