I suspect I'm not alone in that I spent a good portion of my developing time in photography in constant pursuit of sharpness. However, the more comfortable I've gotten with my ability to produce technically "correct" images, the less of a paramount concern sharpness is to me. Don't get me wrong: I still love a good crisp photo and typically do all I can to ensure the closest I can come to technical perfection. However, long gone are the days where I'd summarily delete images where the focus or shutter speed had softened up a shot...

The bottom line for me is that you can have a technically perfect but entirely sterile image that is far less desirable than an interesting image with "character." Sometimes the flaws can actually improve the photo. Peruse any book from a truly great photographer, and you'll find countless images that would be panned on a forum like this for not meeting this technical standard or that. Here's a humorous post illustrating this point:

http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/06/great-photographers-on-internet.html

So here's a thread to post your favorite blurry (or otherwise technically flawed) shots. No pixel-peeping allowed

Great thread. Here's my fav:

The 2 beautiful photos above should be a lesson to many.
Don't delete fuzzy, OOF, blurry photos cos you might have a caught one of they special moments without knowing (or you might know what you are doing!).
Great post as always Evan.

Cheers
BK

Bride and her father........

BKphotography wrote:
The 2 beautiful photos above should be a lesson to many.
Don't delete fuzzy, OOF, blurry photos cos you might have a caught one of they special moments without knowing (or you might know what you are doing!).
Great post as always Evan.

Cheers
BK

Or shoot some OOF on purpose for that matter... That was a great article by the way, it actually made me chuckle. Those are the kinds of responses you see from the brick wall shooters on gear forums... Open any copy of National Geographic and you'll see their photogs break the rules all the time (maybe even most of the time) and yet somehow their work is considered some of the best in the world. Shame on them .

Scott Clark wrote:
BKphotography wrote:
The 2 beautiful photos above should be a lesson to many.
Don't delete fuzzy, OOF, blurry photos cos you might have a caught one of they special moments without knowing (or you might know what you are doing!).
Great post as always Evan.

Cheers
BK

Or shoot some OOF on purpose for that matter... That was a great article by the way, it actually made me chuckle. Those are the kinds of responses you see from the brick wall shooters on gear forums... Open any copy of National Geographic and you'll see their photogs break the rules all the time (maybe even most of the time) and yet somehow their work is considered some of the best in the world. Shame on them .

Read in the brackets mate!

I love blur. It feels very in the moment to me.

Slow shutter speed natural light during the reception... I just liked the emotion of it...

fun thread evan. i have one that's an even bigger blurry fave, but i'm too lazy to go grab the drive it's on maybe later.

Wait! So, you mean you guys aren't perfect and you do get the occasional blurry photo?!?!?!?!?!

Way to burst my bubble!

Yeah what a disappointment

Jarred wrote:

Love this shot... so much better than the sharp version right before they kissed. Oh well... =o\

happy bride dancing with her man

This one would not go quietly to the cutting room floor, good thing too, the bride really liked it.