"If some longing goes unmet, don't be astonished.  We call that life." -Anna Freud

I was walking downtown Seattle and came across these six wonderful white-barked trees planted in front of a large, beautifully polished, black stone wall. I set up for a quick few shots and while i liked the trees, it was the people walking by that really turned out to be special.  

It was early evening on a week-night, the light was dropping so my exposures were on the order of 3/4 to 1 sec and as i hurriedly attempted to capture the trees and wall for my archive-of-useful-backdrops, something unexpected happened. A fellow traveler passed by in front of my lens and left behind more than just his picture - in addition, there in that soft blur, was a bit of his gait, a bit of his need-to-be-somewhere-else, a bit of his intention.  

So now the trees became secondary as I waited for my next wayfarer.  I ended up capturing a dozen or so images.  In each one was the delightful result of a slight change in temporal perspective - my every-day passers-by were transformed into dancers and thespians and sculptors and magicians.

...And that is a crowd to aspire to...

Image notes:

As you might expect, this image was shot in IR and that's the reason for the white clothing. It turns out that most synthetic fabrics are efficient reflectors of IR wavelengths and so show up white or very light in the image. The black shoe of my one-legged man tells me he buys leather. This guy was also wearing a rather large pack on his back - carrying, I trust, all the necessities of the day. The woman on the right was wearing a rather voluminous coat that translated wonderfully as she moved.  

My stillness is all well and good, but all of that motion....