One of my recent favorites

Cutting to the chase - I worked on my 'motion effect' assignment til like, the last minute, and had a HUGE problem coming up with enough light to capture a *tack sharp* stop action shot.  It was a tough assignment given the area we're in here in the PNW and the amount of sunshine we actually get this time of year.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this photographic process, it takes a lot of light for a camera to be able to stop a fast moving object in its film or sensor without blur. If the shutter speed is too slow, or the aperture too small...  You get darkness, or unwanted motion blur.  Bad.  Very, very bad.

The image posted here was of the 13th shot - my creative motion capture.  I used a dancing wind-up robot with my monitor in the background on a screen saver that reacts to sound.  When there is a loud sound the lights intensify and get 'closer' to the screen.  After few, several, many attempts at getting something worthwhile, and just about to call it quits on this experiment, I decided to add a "spotlight" for my "disco dancer" and take a few more images.  This one was near the end of the shoot.  I thought it was exactly what I was looking for and fit the bill.

I love that little robot.  We dance together quite often.  He has friends and relatives at Toys-R-Us - both male and female - always willing to dance.  When I'm not feeling too great, we dance a little and he makes me laugh.  It's a good relationship...  ;-)