I started reading the biography of Eadweard Muybridge more than a year ago.

Since then i’ve been trying to shoot more waterfalls and running water and the like – trying to make pictures look like the way they used to (without the boiling mercury and all that). See… Muybridge was the man who made it possible to take pictures that froze time. He first discovered ways to freeze motion on glass plates eventually leading to the birth of motion pictures.

Before Muybridge all photographic exposures were measured in minutes causing running water to appear fluid and portraits of people to almost always be soft and blurry.. He discovered ways to expose the sensitized plates for fractions of a second, freezing time and showing things that had never been seen before. These discoveries were the product of a long relationship with Leland Stanford, railroad tycoon, equine enthusiast and then Governor of California, that started as a commission to win a bet that Stanford had made with a friend of his that all 4 legs of a horse leave the ground while the horse is galloping.

Today long exposures are not the norm, in fact most available films and cameras make it difficult to make long exposures in daylight without the use of specialized filters and lenses, strong, sturdy tripods and lots of patience.