Fun with Cinemagraphs – Death Valley National Park

One of the great things about video features now included in dSLRs is that you can experiment with new forms of photographic presentation. A favorite technique of mine is to make cinemagraphs because they can create such a surreal viewing experience. In my previous post Mist Trail Hikers, Yosemite National Park I showed how an element of scenery can be highlighted with motion. In the following Cinemagraphs I wanted to highlight human subjects.

Zabriskie Point Cinemagraph, Death Valley National Park

Tea Kettle Junction Cinemagraph I, Death Valley National Park

Note between the Cinemagraph above and the one below, I prefer the one below as I like the subtlety of the moving shadow on the leg of the model (me). As I’m doing more of these I’m finding the greatest impact occurs when you highlight multiple subtle elements of motion particularly when they’re related.

Tea Kettle Junction Cinemagraph II, Death Valley National Park

Cinemagraphs work thanks to an optical illusion known as the Phi Phenomenon. The image below exemplifies the Phi Phenomenon where by staring at the black crosshairs your visual system will interpret a series of still images as fluid motion. This optical illusion is the lynch pin of many of our daily forms of entertainment whether watching TV, movies or even looking at a video montior.

Phi Phenomenon via Jeremy Hinton CC BY-SA 3.0

[tags]photography, cinemagraph, Death Valley, national park, desert, landscape, travel, photographers[/tags]