Joined a couple of webinars lately aimed at stimulating new ways to see things and capture unique images.  The most recent one got me to looking through my camera manual to find a technique I've never used before - multiple exposures.  Essentially the camera stitches together multiple images into a single image, preserving much of the details from all the images.  The resulting photograph is certainly not something you would see with your eye.  I'll keep playing around wtih this as I'm discovering it's more than just changing the camera settings and pointing.  More on that later. 

Another technique discussed is one I've used in the past but not lately - motion blur (or intentional camera movement).  I'm sure my quest for very sharp images has resulted in pushing this technique to the background so it's good to bring it out to see what I can get with it.  This ones even simpler.  You just move the camera around while clicking the shutter.  The longer the shutter speed the more motion blur in the image.  Moving the camera in different ways results in different perspectives, even if the composition is of the same thing.  It's one way to ensure a unique image because two people standing next to each other with the same camera and settings will get different images based on how they move their cameras around.

One instructor showed some nice images of trees made with this technique and noted that vertical motion is best for straight, tall trees.  Here's an example of that:

This is very overexposed because my shutter speed was still not long enough to get good motion, even at f/22 and ISO 100.  You really need a neutral density filter on the lens to cut down on the light so the shutter speed can be over a second (this one is at 1/20th second).  It certainly shows some blur but it's not a very interesting image.  So I wondered if making it darker would help.  Easily enough done, just inverse the image.

Ghost Forest

Now it's much more interesting.  The combination of contrast in the trucks, motion in the limbs and the bluish blur in the middle really gives a sense of mystery.  Almost like a ghostly fire running through a dead forest.

Sharpness is not needed here and would probably distract from the mood.  I'll keep playing around with both these techniques and see if I can get as excited about the outcomes as I am with sharp images.