Week 12 of the photo a day challenge

The theme was action, trying to freeze movement. We were told good lighting and fast shutters would be our best friends this week. There were some awesome shots from people but I was limited to my iPhone, I thought there would be no chance of controlling shutter speed, but after consulting my dear friend Google, I found that there are actually lots of camera apps that let you control exposure, shutter speed etc. so I downloaded one called NightCap which is supposed to be good for long exposures. I know, long exposures do not equal fast shutters, but some people had posted light trails shots - you know where you stand on a bridge over a busy road in the dark and get long white and red lines where headlights and taillights move through you shot. They we fantastic and I really wanted to try and get something similar with just my iPhone.

So the Sunday was Day 76, and just as I was separating the last egg for a pavlova I spotted a action shot opportunity. This was quite a difficult shot trying to hold the egg, capture the white in the right lighting and not get egg all over my phone!




For Day 77 I'd had chance to have a play with the NightCap app and I captured this dancing flame with it on a long exposure (and me blowing the flame gently over the top of my phone), considering it was so dark in the room, the picture is so crisp, I'm really impressed with the app and I think it was free too.



On the Tuesday I went a bit arty again, it was peas for tea and I put them in a glass bowl and swirled them, it's a great effect because the ones in the middle stay pretty still and the ones on the outside move, so by slowing my shutter down I was able to capture the vortex like movement




On day 79 Emily and I were picking Archie up from school and she was jumping about in puddles and hiding from me at the bus stop, in fact she wouldn't stand still!




And on the Thursday I waited until dark and let the kids have a glow stick fight in bed, again using the NightCap app to get a slow shutter and capture my own light trails. I love how you can just see the kids faces glowing





On the Friday it was Archie's birthday and i was doing some baking while he was at school. I'd taken loads of shots while I was baking, but I couldn't choose between them and I didn't think any of them on their own really showed action strongly, so I combined a few into a montage for today's submission




And finally on the Saturday we all went out for tea for Archie's birthday and I got this cracking shot of him eating his spaghetti




Sadly I didn't get chance to get the light trails shot from cars that I wanted to, I tested it out during the day on a badge near a roundabout and I'm sure it will work, but the area is quite isolated and I would need to be there in the dark, plus it was blumming freezing and for the test shots during the day I was getting quite a bit of blur as there was no flat surface to rest the phone on. I still want to get one though and I've seen you can get a tripod for the iPhone too!

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