Sometimes you get lucky when taking photographs. Hell, I've been trying for six months to get a GOOD portrayal of a sneeze. Spencer used to sneeze in a sequence of three sneezes. These days,what was once three is now down to two sneezes usually. I have lots of stop-motion sneezes at speeds ranging from 1/350 to 1/1000 while he's outdoors, but those stop-motion photos of him sneezing appear as if he is merely grimacing or showing an odd expression. But here, I was lucky,as a result of pure persistence; you see, I have been shooting these zoom+flash shots to the tune of 15 to 40 per day,trying to get my timing down,and in order to learn what a slow speed+ a zoom+ a rear-curtain or second-curtain flash pop looks like at various speeds.Most days most pictures shot this way are total crap.So,here I was, yet again shooting rear-synch at 1/15 second at f/5.6 and doing zooming during slow exposures.Suddenly, I could tell Spencer was going to sneeze.
Opportunity met the technique I was using. I'd been practicing with this slow-speed (1/8th to 1/20th) shutter speed with zoom+ flash technique a lot since mid-March when I bought a little Nikon 28-200mm G lens. With this one photo, I think I have finally made an excellent portrayal of a sneeze. And it only took me,oh,ten days short of one year to put together all the needed ingredients--slow speed,flash,and luck and persistence.