The Ghosts That Walk Amongst Us

As I mentioned in the previous post, I spent the evening of June 14th at the Relay For Life, an annual event held by the Canadian Cancer Society.  I was there to take some pictures of the event and of my friend Jasmine, a participant and cancer survivor.  A few days before the event, I had an idea for a photograph that I thought would be interesting.  The Relay For Life is not only a fundraising event, but it's also an event where we remember those who sadly weren't able to beat the disease.  Being a Survivor, I though it would be nice to photograph Jasmine standing along the walking path while people passed her by.  The key to this though, was that it was going to have to be a long exposure photograph.  In doing so, it would make the other people who were walking along the path become blurred as the camera captured their movements.  This would result in what would appear to be 'ghosts', walking the path while Jasmine, who stood motionless stayed in focus.  Kind of a way to show that she had been able to survive the disease.  She loved the idea, and also suggested a second photo where she would be sitting along the path, holding the little memory bag that she had sponsored in a kind of solemn moment, remember the person she had lost and also showing respect for the ghosts that are passing her by.  I liked the idea, so we took a second photograph.  Both are here to be seen.  The first shot was taken at f/7.1, 3sec, ISO 1600 at 28mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/9, 5sec, ISO 1600 at 25mm.  I don't usually shoot long exposure photographs at such a high ISO, but the key to these photos was that Jasmine had to remain in focus.  It's rather difficult not to move, especially when you're standing.  The slightest movement gets picked up by the camera and the shot would then be ruined.  To try and increase the shutter speed, you could use a large aperture, like f/2.8   However, that would have blurred the background.  I wanted you to see the small bags and the 'ghosts' as they walked away.  That meant using apertures like the ones I chose.  The only other option, was to up the ISO.  This is a bit risky though, as upping the ISO puts your photograph at risk of having to much 'noise', which is kind of like little grains of light that show up in your photograph, especially in the dark areas.  Luckily, my photographs didn't suffer from having to much noise in them, and I think they came out pretty well.  I'm not really sure where I stand on the whole spirituality aspect of things, but while you're at the Relay For Life, you can't help but get a bit of a tingle that the survivors and supporters are not the only one's who are walking the path.  That's kind of the emotion that I was trying to capture with these photographs.