It is my turn again for Monochrome Madness and I thought it would be fun to do MOVEMENT. I’ve done this as a theme before but it was a long time ago and I thought it might be nice to revisit.
There are so many ways to get movement in an image. This is where shutter speed is important. I don’t want to give you a lesson on how to use shutter speed (SS), unless you want one, but basically SS is all about movement or things moving in your image. The slower the SS, the more movement you will get. The faster it is, the sharper your image will be. Of course, there are times when you have a faster SS and still get movement.
If you are taking a photo of a person and say their arm is blurry, then your shutter speed is too slow. Really, if you get movement you don’t want in an image, then you need to make sure your SS is faster.
You can intentionally slow it down to find out what you might get. It can be a lot of fun. For instance, the below image was taken with not too slow a SS, but I was moving. I was in a car at night, and I put the camera on the dashboard. It was just held there while I took a photo through a tunnel.
It isn’t sharp at all, but it is kind of strange. The first one in the gallery was taken the same way as we went through one of the toll gates on the Eastern freeway. Pretty wild.
Quite a few images here are more about panning. To pan, you have to slow your SS down some, maybe 1/30 of a second, slower if you think you can do it, though if you’ve never done it before, I would start at about 1/60 and go from there. You need to pick a spot on what you want to capture. For instance, the cyclist below, I would have had my spot on the handlebars or their head, more likely the handlebars. You set yourself up stiffly and then follow the subject and click. Your camera needs to be moving at the same speed as the object you want to capture.
He isn’t completely in focus, but you do get the sense of movement. I mean look at the white line he is about to cross. This is a top Australian cyclist, so he would have been moving very fast.
In the gallery, all the cycling, tram, and boat images were taken with this method.
Water is a bit different. You can photograph it with a long exposure, something like 20 seconds and get that marshmellow look, ike number 11, or you can just take photos.
The following image was taken from a boat, so I couldn’t do a long exposure, but I tried to slow down the shutter speed as much as possible the waterfall like that. It looks almost like mist. I used 1/50 SS for this image.
All the water photos, except number 11, were taken without a tripod. They were with a slower shutter speed, as much as I could without the image being out of focus. For example number 5 was taken at 1/20 of a second, while number 6 was 1/750.
Playing around with SS can get you some interesting results. It can be lots of fun to play around with it. I would put my camera on Shutter Priority and just see what I could get.
Below are the above images plus some other examples of movement in images.
When I first started thinking about this challenge, I really thought that I would do more long exposures, but as I was going through my archives, I found other interesting ones. I hope you enjoyed seeing them.
Participating in Monochrome Madness
If you would like to participate in this challenge, please post photos on your blog and use the tag Monochrome-Madness, then we can all use the reader to see what you post.
You can also leave a pingback, do they still call them that? Basically, you put a link to the host’s monochrome madness post in your post, and it leaves a link in the comment section.
Don’t forget to check out the Monochrome Madness page. On this page, the next theme is announced and there is also all the information for participating. Please go and check it out. Click on the Monochrome Madness heading in the menu.
https://geriatrixfotogallerie.wordpress.com/2025/08/22/movement-in-the-delta/
Wonderful movement images Leanne! I can do handheld movement. One of these days I’ll put my camera on a tripod, put on an ND filter and have a go at smooth water. Your images are an inspiration.
Thank you Anne. YOu will have to try it and see how it goes, try a waterfall or something.
Hello Leanne,
A wonderful theme and a very interesting selection of images you have chosen for the challenge. I particularly like the first, third, sixth, ninth, and last images.
Here is my contribution for this week: https://wp.me/pfnz9O-QF.
Many greetings, Robert
Thank you so much Robert.
Love your captures- some are so interesting! Great topic
https://dailymusing57.com/2025/08/21/monochrome-madness-movement/
Thank you so much.
Wonderful set of images of mvement, Leanne – here are some of mine : https://suejudd.com/2025/08/21/monochrome-madness-movement/
Thank you Sue.
Great idea for a subject! Here are some of our examples.
https://joehahnenfeld.wordpress.com/2025/08/20/monochrome-madness-movement/
That’s fantastic.
You explain the part that shutter speed plays in our shots very well, and I enjoyed your examples – I especially love the lone cyclist and the water in #13 🙂 Talking of water, here’s my contribution: https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/gallery-moving-through-arctic-waters/
Thank you Sarah, I’m never sure if what I write makes sense for things like this.
Amazing movement captures! Breathtaking…
Thank you so much Amy.
Nice, Leanne.
Thank you Sofia.
I tried but I am not sure if it worked. Anyway, here is my take on the topic: https://wanderingteresa.com/movement-in-monochrome/
I have looked, but not commented yet, I think you did good Teresa.
What a fbulous gallery Leanne. You make taking movement photos look easy. I have such a hard time.
Here’s my MM#41
https://bushboy.blog/2025/08/20/nature-on-the-move/
I like capturing movement, thank you Brian, yours are really good too.
Impossible to pick a favorite, Leanne. So many great examples of movement!
Thank you so much Sandy.
Welcome!
😁😊
Great series Leanne. The solo biker and 4 person row team I love.
Thank you so much Mike.
Not an easy theme, at least for me. I admit when I saw your top photo I thought at first it was a fire with the flames going up before I realised that it was water going down. I love the
checkered/textured waves radiating outward, more prominent in the version in the middle of your post. It looks magical. My other favourite is the track cyclist – he looks so crisp and clear with the surroundings soft and washed-out.
Here are my movement captures: https://picturesimperfectblog.com/2025/08/19/hunting-mode/
I love the checkered effect too, I’d never seen a waterfall like that before. Thank you so much Elke.
I like these–especially the panning shot of the biker!
Thank you Lois, he was moving so fast, so it was surprising to get a good shot.
these are cool, and I especially like the bike racing one as I have some people in my family who are really into that and hard to capture it
Thank you Beth, they are hard, I did it for a few years nearly every weekend so I got quite good at it.
I really like that image from the boat.
That is from New Zealand, thank you Dawn.