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I’m sure you’ve all seen those pictures where the camera pans on a moving object, so the object appears still while the background rushes by. Right? Aside from being an object lesson in special relativity, it’s also hard to do. You have to pan the camera perfectly at constant speed to get it right, and that’s trickier than you might think.

A few days ago I was out trying this on passing cars, and making tough sledding of it. Then a group of bicylists came by, so I panned on them. But I was still panning at automobile speed, so I didn’t catch them.

Except I did! By a fluke, one frame turned out nearly perfectly. So here you are, a pair of Irvine bicyclists pedaling along on one of our miles and miles of bike lanes. Next up: panning at night.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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