Image Making

Poetry in Motion

  Usually, we want photographs to be as crisp and clear as possible. But sometimes fuzziness can improve a picture, as these two images illustrate.

I shot several pictures of a child just after she received a long pink dress from her aunt in South Africa. It was night-time, and most of the pictures were taken with flash. They were flat and boring. But in one picture, the flash failed to fire. The camera's auto-exposure system used a long shutter speed to compensate, resulting in a slightly blurred picture. It also underexposed the picture. In dim situations, this particular camera produces a fair amount of electronic "noise." In this case, the noise, blurring and subdued lighting add a painterly, impressionistic character that are perfect for the subject matter. A framed enlargement hangs in our front hallway.

This underscores one of the great benefits of digital photography. With film, mistakes are expensive. So are experiments. If you're paying for film and processing, you have to be careful about what you shoot. With digital, mistakes and experiments are free.

A long exposure when the flash failed to fire produced a painting-like effect in this picture. (left)

Panning the camera captured this border collie’s high energy personality. (above)

I shot the picture of our border collie during an evening stroll last summer. I panned the camera horizontally following Nellie on her run through the park, producing the blurred background. The resulting picture captures Nellie's energetic personality more than any clear static image could.

I'd usually think twice about firing off a roll of film for something as mundane as a stroll through the park. Usually, we shoot pictures of special events: birthday parties, graduation ceremonies, vacations. Digital makes it affordable to capture the magical events of everyday life, as they occur around us.* - Gordon Brockhouse

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