Photo Techniques: The Blur

When I started photography, way back in the film days, "tack sharp" dominated the criteria in judging a good photography. Minor blur suggesting motion occasionally found acceptance, but for the most part we looked for sharpness.

Lately in reading and watching videos of photographers I find blur in part of the photographs explained away as needed for showing motion, directing the eye to the sharp portion of the photograph, and in general as an OK part of the photograph. This comes from noted, long-time professional photographers.

On a recent hike I decided to see what I could do with blur. Upon my return to my office, I downloaded all the shots off the camera, and deleted all but one photograph. They looked out of focus, period.

This one I kept:

Everything came out sharp except the bird in motion, and even the bird in motion is clearly a bird.

I need a lot more practice, but for the record, here is the technique I used: I focused the lens on an area where a lot of bird activity centered. As activity shifted to that area, I shot. This is one of three of this particular bird.

"Fashion" changes in photography as well as everything else. Keeping up makes us better photographers.