Capturing Motion

How many of you have tried to take a picture of your child swinging? How many of those pictures have turned out blurry or you have only captured half of your child's body in the frame? Believe me, I have been there. Through some serious trial and error I have found a way to capture motion of a swinging child with fairly consistent results. I'm not really sure if this is possible with a point and shoot camera, but if you have an SLR then you are in business. First, set your camera's focus mode to "S", single servo AF. Second, position yourself in front of your swinging child (be careful not to get hit:-). Third, set your focal length (or zoom length) to the desired setting (i.e. if you would like to take a picture of your child as they are farthest back in their swinging motion then wait until they are in that position to set your focal length). This will ensure you have framed them properly for your shot. Fourth, as your child swings into position, press your shutter release halfway down to set the focus, but do not take the picture. Lastly, while still holding the shutter release down halfway, wait until they swing back into position one more time and this time press the release all the way down.

The result is an in focus, well-framed shot of your child doing what all children love, and that is to swing!!

I guess the other way would be to set your camera to continuous shooting mode, but that just seems so easy!!