11 seconds.  It doesn't seem like that is a very long stretch of time at all.  I mean, what could you possibly accomplish in 11 measly seconds?  Your first instinct will probably be, "Not much."  I was in complete agreement with that idea until I did some internet research to find out what can happen in 11 seconds and my findings were so amazing it made my head spin!  Here are a few examples...

Every 11 seconds

47 babies are born

825 McDonald's burgers are eaten

114,950 Coca-Cola's are consumed

Bill Gates earns $2,750.00

484 Lightning strikes hit the Earth

A bee flaps its wings 2,970 times

37,303,241 e-mails are sent

33,000,000 Google searches are summoned

and...it took me 11 seconds to take the photo below!

This boat dock is located in Essex, CT and I've wanted to photograph it for a long time.  Many photographers, and myself included, will pre-plan their shoots by selecting subjects or locations and also having a good idea of how the final photo(s) will look like.  I knew how I wanted this photo to look before I even stepped on the platform and took the picture.  In order to achieve this dreamy and moody look requires the photographer to utilize a technique called "long exposure photography."  A normal photo takes a fraction of a second and will freeze the subject, long exposure photography however takes the photo over several seconds or minutes resulting in a photo that is surreal and can twist reality.

Let's use my photo above as an example.  A normal photo taken of this scene would freeze the motion of the water and the clouds.  The irregular shapes of the waves in the water and the details of the clouds would be clearly visible.  This result is what most people see because it is the type of photo that most people take.  In my image above, notice how the water is silky smooth and there is movement of the clouds in the sky.  That is because the camera's shutter was opened for an extended period of time to capture the scene and the constant movement of the water and sky denies the camera the ability to generate a frozen image of them.  And how long do you think it took me to take this photo?  You guessed it...11 seconds!  What can you do in 11 seconds?