Storytellers Photo Mission 15: Speed!

 Every month we challenge our team of photographers from around the world with a mission.

Speed. Sometimes it’s the hardest thing to capture; sometimes it works to your advantage. We challenged the team to capture speed, be it slow shutter or motion blur below are their results. Enjoy the gallery and be sure to pass it along!

Speed: Joseph Roybal

“Motion blur is always a fun technique to work with for creating some interesting effects in an image. I was wanting to portray Denver as a lively and bustling metropolitan city which got me working on this project. One of the lines of our light rail in downtown Denver merges at a junction with the city in the background and through several techniques, this image came together.”

Speed: Fabio Antenore

“Sometimes it takes a really long shutter speed to catch something fast. I was taking this picture of the stairways at San Juan de Gaztelugatxe and suddenly I had the idea to illuminate the whole way up with my head torch. In retrospect, I realized this idea was not my best. I do a lot of sport, but it is really hard to run the whole way in 4 minutes. But I did it. At the end of the stairway, I was depleted still had minimum 15min for the way back down. After I was looking at my camera display I was really happy to see that my idea had worked and the shot was perfect. I took two more for the stars and the rest of the foreground and it was done…

Speed: Laura Barisonzi

“The inherent challenge in shooting professional athletes in motion is part of the appeal of shooting sports. The more elite the athlete the faster they go and the harder they are to shoot. I want the viewer to be able to sense and feel the extreme speed while the photo also has to be sharp enough to appreciate the athlete’s physique.”

Speed: Samuel Taipale

“The beauty of photography is being able to freeze the moment. You are able to sense the speed in the photo, but it’s still just a moment of a movement.”

Speed: Bruno Calendini

“After quite the race, mother cheetah killed a Thomson’s gazelle. While she took a deep breath this little one start eating. For this picture closer to the animal, I used a wide angle and the camera body was triggered by remote control.”

Speed: Kristian Bogner

“This shot is and oldie but a goodie. Taken on my Nikon D1X under the evening lights at the 2002 Olympics I literally flicked the camera in my wrist at the same angle as the action and got incredibly lucky to capture this perfect pan shot of the Jamaican bobsled team.”

Speed: Michael Hanson

“It was tough keeping up with these Kazakh cowboys as they sped across the wide open plains.”

Speed: Alessandra Meniconzi

“At the beginning of March, I traveled to Dalanzadgad in the south of the Gobi Desert to attend the renowned and famous winter festival in Mongolia: the camel festival.

The camel festival was first initiated in 1997 to protect and preserve the domestic (two-humped) Bactrian camel population and to pass the rich Mongolian camel breeding heritage to the younger generation. After a decline of this incredible animal, with the festival the country has seen a significant and vital rise in the value of Bactrians.

This year the festival organized the race of the largest number of camels and therefore broke the Guinness World Record. An incredible 1,108 camels came to the finish line out of 1,115 registered in the 15-kilometer long race. The fastest completed in 35 minutes and 12 seconds and the whole race was finished in 1 hour and 8 minutes.”

Speed: Florian Wagner

“Speed is relative. Once you are in a train doing 300km/h you don´t realize the energy being moved combined with the danger which is involved. This is different on horseback. You feel the heart pumping while your horse moves underneath, breathing hard, sweating. Especially when you are on slippery ground like Mira (rider) and Reege (skier), playing outdoors at their home stable in the Bavarian Alps.”

Speed: Hugo Pedel

“Life is a game. A game where you learn from a very young age to control all your facts, all your choices… But what happens if you decide to spice up your experiences? What happens if you ride so speedily that you can have an overall control of yourself ? This may lead you to some moments of doubts, but above all, you’ll enjoy the game!”

Speed: Kyriakos Kaziras

“Lion running in pursuit of a lioness. The latter wasn’t very interested in the lion, but he spent the morning running after her anyway.”

Speed: Glenn Bartley

“Fascinated. One of my favorite slow speed images – The Tiger Heron.”

Speed: Emily Polar

“The first shot I thought of for this submission was my favorite panning shot of two Vietnamese boys on a scooter then I thought it’d be fun to submit one of someone on a beach or just chilling (my kind of speed). But in the end, I chose this shot. Here’s to speed in all it’s forms! Niseko, Japan.”

Speed: Jerm Cohen

“Red Hook Bike Crit in Brooklyn, NY.”

Speed: Daisy Gilardini

“A grizzly bear jumps at full speed to catch a salmon – Hallo Bay, Katmai National Park, Alaska.”

Speed: Frank Lopez

“No matter how fast you’re speeding through life, you’ll always leave a trace whether it be a photo, a trail or an impact on others. Even supersonic speeds can be frozen in time to be cherished forever”.

Speed: Rachid Dahnoun

“Want to feel like a kid again? Try racing through the woods on snowmobiles with a group of great friends. That should do the trick.”

Speed: Glenn Fajota

“With an approaching thunderstorm, pedestrians make a dash at Pike Place Market.”

Speed: Craig Pulsifer

“La Union, Philippines – One of the local instructors from the popular surf town of Urbiziondo, takes the plunge from atop the 50-foot high Tangadan Falls.  The take off is just as critical as the landing – this jump has claimed lives before.”

Speed: Elisa Detrez & Max Coquard

“L’éventail, Cascades du Hérisson. Jura / France”

Speed: Gilles Reboisson

“The Moro Sphinx is one of the fastest butterflies. It can fly at 50 km/h, 40 km/h on average ! Here in China, during a climbing expedition.”

Speed: Andreas Kieling

“In the oldest desert on earth, the Namib, Africa’s last desert elephants exist. They are smaller than the African savanna elephant, but only have to go to the waterhole to drink every three days. It was unbearably hot. I had been waiting in the blazing heat for hours. In the late afternoon, two bull elephants approached from different directions.  Instead of quenching their thirst first, they started fighting right away. They were on top of each other for about 20 minutes. I was filming and shooting as if in a trance the whole time. Such a fight between desert elephants has never been documented.”

Speed: Kylie Turley

Speed: Al Lee

“This year I’ve been focusing on the intricacies of the complex and technical movements involved in rock climbing. Sometimes very dynamic moves are required where the climber must launch from one set of holds to reach the next holds usually much higher on the rock. Here we see climber Chris Davis captured just before latching onto the upper holds on a famous boulder in the Peak District: The Buckstone.”

Speed: Elisabeth Brentano

“I snapped this photo in the middle of a field in Death Valley National Park during the super bloom this spring. The wind was moving at about 20 miles per hour, causing the desert sunflowers to whip back and forth under the first light of the day.”

Speed: Michael Teague

“Speed means light trails to me! This image was taken on our beloved 6th street bridge in Down Town Los Angeles. Why is this image so significant? Currently, the bridge is being torn down and replaced due to concrete cancer, such a bummer too. From a distance, it doesn’t look like much, but it’s a Los Angeles Icon and local hot spot. I have many memories shooting here with so many friends I’ve met on Instagram. Hopefully, whatever replaces it is as awesome or better than this so I can sit and shoot more buses in passing… My DTLA”

Speed: Dave Cheung

“This is a very special photo as it was taken moments after Jordan proposed to his best friend, Christine. For years, they’ve enjoyed the festivities of the Calgary Stampede, but this was the one they’ll never forget. I love how they’re so connected as the world rushes past them without a care in the world :)”

Speed: Ryan Struck

“I choose this image of a surfer diving off of a boat in Mexico for this month’s theme of Speed because photography is all about capturing the decisive moment. The heart of photography is comprised of genuine and honest imagery, where pretty colors and interesting compensation pump our eyes filled with beautiful imagery. Jumping off a boat deep in Mexico to surf a wave with no one else in sight helps too 😉 This moment happened so fast if I hadn’t had my camera out I would have missed it!”

Speed: Matthias Fend

“Have you ever driven a speedboat in the Mediterranean Sea? You should do it! We had one of these boats for a commercial shooting. Luckily we did not forget your skis so we could use them for water skiing during the breaks.”

Amanda Pollard

About Amanda Pollard

Amanda Pollard is the WW Communications Manager for Lowepro. She's a drone enthusiast, who not only loves aerial photography but FPV as well. You can usually find her lurking around Lowepro's social media, writing blogs, and trying to find ways to give bags away. You can reach Amanda at apollard@daymen.com

One Comment

  • Marc M says:

    All excellent images all in their own right but, my favourite is the stairways at San Juan de Gaztelugatxe by Fabio Antenore followed closely with Glenn Bartley’s The Tiger Heron.
    Well done everyone

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