Connecting Essay One

I found this image on the internet - the photographer has used the busy London nightlife to his/her advantage and created an exciting image. By using the technique of motion blur, he was able to show movement and put emphasis on the speed of the bus. This shows journey through the lights, which highlights the motion blur that has been used and making sure the viewer focuses on the bus more than anything else in the image. The element of colour has also been practiced to a large extent - there are warm red colours that are placed around the picture. This creates significant contrast between the background and the main focuses of the image. It is clear to the viewer that the bus is the main object in the picture, however, the red telephone box has been included so the viewer also pays some attention to it. Despite this, the photographer has made sure that the lights from the bus are bright and clear so that the viewers understand that the bus is the main focus in the image - this allows them to first look at the bus before focusing on the telephone box. These two objects have been emphasised as they show the movement clearly; with the still, sharp telephone box, the photographer is able to exaggerated the blurred bus, making it seem faster and further adding to the theme of journey.

This is my own image, which I have created using the technique of motion blur. I have chosen this angle because it allows me to show a contrast between the sky, the other cars and the bus. The bus was my main focus and I wanted my viewer to focus on it as soon as they look at the image - I achieved this  through the use of colours and lights. I ensured that the street lights were bright enough to allow the viewer to see the rest of the scene, enabling them to engage in the image and I did not want to restrict their view too much. The motion blur technique I used allowed me to manipulate the speed of the bus - by using a low shutter speed, I was able to show the bus travelling faster than it actually was. This creates an illusion and allows me to depict the theme of journey whilst still including other elements such as shadows and colours, adding diversity to my work and making it more exciting.

Overall, these two images are extremely similar. The exact same techniques have been used for the exact same aims. by using the technique of motion blur, the photographer and I were able to manipulate the speed of the buses and create an illusion for the viewer in order to achieve the theme of journey. We both also decided to keep the rest of our scenes still and crisp sharp so that the motion blur was even more exaggerated and highlighted. This ensured that as soon as the viewer looked at the image, they would automatically focus on the moving bus, which is further achieved by the use of lights from the bus in both images. On the other hand, although both images have very similar aims, I wanted my background to be darker than the bus so I made sure that the bus was the only bright object in the image, this was not the case for the image from the photographer, where he included other bright objects such as the telephone box and the warm red colour on the road.