Recall, if you will, old science fiction movies.  When the starship is put in hyper-drive, or moves toward light speed, the surrounding stars become a blur of lights streaking past the ship as it converges on one finite point at the end of the tunnel.  That’s because the end-point is in clear focus at all time, while space and time warp around the ship on its speedy path toward the destination.

Although slightly more mundane, technologically speaking, than warp drive, the photographic technique known as Zoom Bursting simulates this effect in order to create both an artistic feel and a true sense of motion. If we were to keep our camera steady and focused on one point in the distance, then extended our shutter speed to lengthen our exposure, we would be able to capture any motion occurring during the shutter speed interval. If we were to pan across the scene, the picture would all be a blur as the scene is stationary in relation to the movement of our camera. But if we maintain clear focus on a single object, open the shutter, then zoom our lens from one focal length to the other before closing the shutter, we’d see the warp drive effect! As the object in focus appears relative to the camera, but the peripheral scene is in a state of motion due to the shifting focal lengths during the exposure.

ISO 100, 18mm to 200mm zooming action, F/8.0, 1 sec

This concept is slightly confusing verbally, so we'll demonstrate with an example.

Zoom Bursting a Still Life

Sitting in my living room, I scanned the table on which my pictures sit. My eyes scanned across the table, then, zoomed in instantly on one particular picture that caught my attention. Almost as if taking a stroll down memory lane with pictures from the past whizzing by in my mind. I wondered how one may portray this scenario in a picture? Zoom bursting came instantly to thought.

-         Camera shake is almost unavoidable in these shots due to the cumbersome, manual motion necessary to adjust the camera lens from one focal length to another. However, although we'd like to stay as steady as possible, some additional movement may be unavoidable and even interesting in Zoom Bursting. I hold the camera as steadily as possible, even bracing my arm on a solid surface if possible. But realize, the picture will not be sharp, and in fact, is not intended to be completely sharp. So the steadiness offered by a tripod is foregone in favor of the freedom of movement afforded by hand-holding the camera.

-         I then compose the shot, zooming all the way in on the central object of my scene. In this case, my mother's picture.  At my longest focal length, I sharpen my focus on the destination of my zoom, my mother's picture. With this focus locked, I put my camera in manual focusing mode. I want to preserve the focus on my final composition: the fully zoomed frame on my mother's picture.  With the focus set, I reset the lens back to its shortest focal length (zoomed all the way out).

-         I then extended my shutter speed to allow enough time for the capture of movement.

-         The next challenge to overcome is determining how to time our shot in coordination with our zooming. Hopefully your camera has a "bulb" setting for shutter speed. The "bulb" shutter speed setting allows the photographer to determine exactly how long the shutter remains open manually, rather than setting the shutter speed interval as we've done in all our previous examples. In the "bulb" mode, the shutter opens when we press the shutter release down. It will remain open as long as our finger remains on the depressed shutter release button. When we release the button, the shutter will close.  Armed with this knowledge, having already set focus on our object, our shutter speed set to "bulb", I depress the shutter release with one hand and zoom the lens from its shortest focal length to its longest focal length with our other hand simultaneously. When we've reached the end of our zooming we release the button to close the shutter. With some practice, this coordination becomes smoother and more fluid. If your camera does not have a "bulb" shutter speed setting then this technique becomes more difficult because you must time your shutter speed  interval to allow time for zooming and then coordinate your zoom with your shutter open and release. It becomes more difficult, but with practice, not impossible. Also, as a note, I've found the motion steadier when I hold the camera firmly with my dominate hand, and then wrap my hand up and over the lens with my hand crooked so I may turn the lens ring smoothly in one fluid motion to fully extend it.

ISO 100, 18mm to 200mm zooming action, F/8.0, 1 sec

Zooming renders blurred motion lines in a generally vertical direction, while panning renders blurred motion lines in generally horizontal direction. So when much practice has helped you to become competent in both techniques, you may be able to utilize them in symphony to effect the sensation of motion in two directions.