PANNING!

Today I had my first experience with panning...what a CHALLENGE.  We took a trip to the commons and photographed Mr. Bush riding his bike.  We worked in shutter priority mode, between 1/30 - 1/60 of a second which gave us a fast enough shutter to capture Mr. Bush in focus, but a slow enough shutter to blur the background of the photograph.  Our first step was to focus on a point a little to the right or left of us (hold the shutter button half way down), then Mr. Bush would ride in on his bike and we would follow him with our camera.  When he reached a point roughly in front of us, we would press the button the rest of the way and capture the photograph.  My main challenge was timing...moving with the bike and also positioning him and his bike in a quality area of the picture.  Patience was key, but eventually we got the hang of it!