Inverse panning: Belgium from a train

[MCWB]

So I was a little bored on a train trip from Liege to Brussels recently, so I decided to take some photos out the window, as you do. Dusk was approaching though, which meant little hope of freezing things with fast shutter speed... then it hit me, why not go the other way, and intentionally create blur by using a low shutter speed? This way things closest to the tracks become smoothly blurred, and things further away become less blurred.

As you can see, the results are fairly abstract and I'm betting not everyone will like them, but it's something different I guess, at least for me. Anyway enough waffle, on with the pics (click on the thumbnails for a medium-sized image, then click on that for 1600x1200).











Same as above with a slight curves adjustment:



The rest of the gallery is here, please critique away!

[Killakoala]

I don't know what to say Trent

I do like the last image though. Nice vivid colours and the blurring makes it the pick of the bunch.

[leek]

Some nice effects there Trent... Shame you didn't do a 10-second version - you could have used it in the competition...

Hope you enjoyed Belgium... I hope that you stopped there and didn't just go thundering through on the train...

[Sheetshooter]

Interesting stuff Trent,

A theme or M.O. worthy of further pursuit I feel, although I think the strength of the aesthetic lies in the obtuse subtlety of the first four rather than the more obvious dawn or dusk shots (the last of the red sky shots is the better of the two, for me, however).

The cracker of the series is number 4 with the bit of built stuff whizzing by. Many of the pioneers like Walker Evans did picture stories of 'Amercica from the train' in an era when there was insufficient visual literacy widespread in the community to allow for abstraction or extraction. Times have changed for many of us and what you have done is akin to an impressionism. The first four shots convey the mind-numbing boredom of relentless transit. More than knowing what you saw, I see these pictures and know how you felt. It is that soporific daze that is missing from the last two where there is actually some elements of interest in the image.

Well done and thanks for sharing. Safe and happy travels ....