Painting with motion: finding stories through panning

Speed

When Motion Becomes Your Brush

There is panning (yeah, we all know what it is and the web is full of tutorials about it, so you don’t need another explanation from me)…and then there’s panning combined with multiple exposure to push the whole idea to a higher creative level.

So, if with “simple” panning reaching the “wow” factor is already pretty damn hard, using it with multiple exposure multiplies not only the exposures…but also the failures!

Panning was already one of those techniques I used to play, but at some point I wanted more. I asked myself: “Ok, so: why don’t we try to integrate it with multiple shots”?

…and that simple question opened the door to a different way of seeing movement.

From Kowloon to the Moon

You know that Hong Kong is one of the wildest places to experiment with photography and personally for this I love Kowloon side. One evening I went to Tsim Sha Tsui in one of the busiest streets, one of those packed with fancy shops, lights and red taxis…and that means endless movement, ready to be captured by my camera.

So, with multiple exposure on, set on “Average” mode (which is probably the best choice after dark), I started by choosing my backdrop and found one tall skyscraper among the many that caught my eye. Then I waited for the right element to cut through the scene and of course a taxi was the obvious choice.

We are here for the panning so, yes: the second exposure was all about capturing the motion of that taxi. I set a slow shutter speed (something around 1/10 to 1/5 of a second works really well at night) and then followed the car smoothly as it passed. That is the whole trick of panning here: you match the speed of the subject with your own movement keeping the taxi sharp while the background melts into a streak of light. Combine that with the static skyscraper from the first exposure and the scene starts to shift into something more fluid and imaginative.

Before getting anything usable of course I tried it many times, adjusting timing, refining movement and my own rhythm.

Then at some point I called it a day convinced that maybe one or two shots were at least worth saving. When I checked everything on my laptop I found a few that looked pretty cool. The original shot was horizontal so I tried rotating the frame vertically thinking it might give the whole composition a stronger lift. That simple move changed everything. The composition somehow had more character and the taxi turned into a clean vertical streak like a rocket firing upward, with the skyscraper instantly became a launch tower ready to send it off.

I titled the image "From Kowloon to the Moon". A playful joke but also a reminder that a simple city corner can open a door to imagination. That is the magic of mixing panning with multiple exposure.

From Kowloon to the Moon

Two is fun, so…let’s try with three!

So why stop at two exposures when we can push things further and make everything more In Causeway Bay, near the Sogo mall, there’s a famous crossroad that always reminded me of the world famous Shibuya crossing in Tokyo and I kept wondering if there was a way to photograph it from above. Finding a rooftop felt almost impossible because the towers around me created a real maze. One day though I noticed a small terrace belonging probably to a restaurant or a cafè (impossible to spot it from downstairs), so I decided to check it. It was not high at all maybe the 5th or 6th floor, not more, but it was enough to see the entire flow of pedestrians from a new angle.

I reached the place (not without troubles!), I had a beer and “unleash” my camera: from that viewpoint I had the perfect overview of the bustling street so I thought “Why not try a 3 shots multiple exposure here?”. 

I decided to take two exposures of the pedestrians to capture their movement and layer everything with a panning shot of a vehicle. As you can imagine it took many attempts. The magic happened when a double-decker bus passed right in front of me. I followed it with a slow pan and that third exposure transformed the frame. The bus created soft streaks almost like brushstrokes across the scene.

The result felt dynamic and full of life. It looked like the crossing itself was breathing. So what better title than Rush?

Rush

...and now let's try with 4!

After you have some good result, you want more and more and that’s exactly what happened!

So, another day I was wandering around TST. I set up a multiple exposure, this time with 4 shots, aiming to combine two static shots with two panning ones (I know, let’s make it more and more complicated!). The backdrop this time was the shop front of a famous Hong Kong jewelry chain at the corner of a road: here, after the 2 static shots, I took 2 panning of cars taxi passing in front of the shop, making sure the second one was with a red taxi.

The result was really cool: the streaks of color created by the panning blended perfectly with the shop sign, which was red as well, giving the image a sense of harmony and energy that made it feel alive (the shot is "Speed", at the beginning of this article, top of the page).

Of course many times I end up with images that I have to throw directly in the bin of my pc, but these "failures" are part of the charm. They teach you timing patience and the importance of moving your camera in sync with the subject.

I think that is why I keep doing it. It is playful it is unpredictable and sometimes it surprises even me. There is a thrill in layering reality and motion to create something that feels alive. Each frame is a small adventure a story that could not exist in a single instant.

And you? Have you ever tried capturing motion in a way that tells a story beyond one single frame?