Light from within - a cross study

[jsvphoto]

These are all approximately 1.3 second exposures, aperture 10, ISO 400. Taken on a tripod, using a manual zoom technique during the exposure. They are a little softer than I wanted, but it's difficult to zoom without getting some movement. Also, the wind was blowing at about 15-20 mph...

Any thoughts? Anyone like this technique? How about color vs. B&W?

[jsvphoto]

This is actually my favorite of the evening, I think.

[DrFil]

these are pretty cool, but what's with the incredibly bright light at the top?

[James Salenger]

I think the color version does it for me.

[jsvphoto]

DrFil: The bright area is the light source - a single bulb illuminating the cross. If you look close, you can see there were two lights, but only one bulb was lit. I'd have preferred the lights were further away, but nothing I could do about that.

James: As noted, I originally liked that last B&W shot best, but the color is starting to grow on me. The intense light almost looks likes it's bursting out from between the bricks. I want to spend some time and see if I can get rid of the bulb on the left, though, as that takes a lot away from the image.

Thanks for commenting.

[MagikTrik]

I think I prefer the graphicness (is that a word) of the black & whites. I too like the one from the second post because I think in the first B&W the bricks from the close up portion take too much attention.
I'm always a sucker for a good zoom blur too, it's one of those techniques that you can rarely use (1 because not too many subjects fit it & 2 because it looks lame if you ALWAYS do it, ya know?) but when you choose to do it with a fitting subject it just looks awesome. I used to be the photographer for an antique-type interior design store & one of their favorite pictures was the only zoom blur image (very light so it could still be published though) I've ever actually put out there, here;'s a link if your interested:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/magiktrik/190388937/

Keep up the good work.