Saturday, May 30, 2009

Images: Burst mode

In Monday's photo of the honor guard's 21-gun salute, sharp eyes may have spotted the spent shell being ejected from the first gunner's Mossberg 500 (enlarged in the left-hand photo, below).

I had my camera set to shoot continuously during the three volleys, and I'm always interested in what gets captured during those split seconds -- momentary puffs of smoke, fleeting facial expressions and so on. In a few frames from this series, I happened to catch the fourth gunner having a bit of an issue (right).

I'm no scattergun guru, but on platforms I'm more familiar with I'd call that kind of FTE a "stovepipe." No harm done, considering this was ceremonial fire. Still, I'm sure it made one fellow a tad cranky.