Unfreezing Time: From a Single Moment to a Flowing Narrative

Long Exposures and iPhonography

Photographs are bi-dimensional.

Perspective, blur, and clever shadows create the illusion of the 3D world’s depth, where we live.

Different from video, the fourth dimension of time is also not present in a photograph. At least not continuously.

Your camera freezes and slices time into a moment to be appreciated.

But, your camera is a time machine. It is also capable of stretching time.

When you stretch the time in a photograph you give the viewer the illusion of movement. Blurring motion. And, here are you again adding another missing dimension to your photography.

You can achieve a motion blur effect by leaving the camera’s shutter open while capturing moving subjects. Also known as long-exposure photography.

That is at least with a conventional camera. When you use the camera of an iPhone things become different. And, other creative possibilities open before your eyes.

Let me share with you my journey through time. The time that you can also frame in your photographs.

This is not a story about dreamy waterfalls. Or about light trails in the city at night. Or about light painting with flashlights. You can find plenty of examples of these techniques and how-to elsewhere.