Thursday, October 16, 2008

Thematic Photographic 20: "Blur" v.1.0


"First night R2K I"
Raleigh, NC - 12.31.1999 (Click to embiggen)

Thematic Photographic hosted by Carmi - Button Image by Smarmoofus Hosted by Written Inc.

"First night R2K II"
Raleigh, NC - 12.31.1999 (Click to embiggen)

Thematic Photographic hosted by Carmi - Button Image by Smarmoofus Hosted by Written Inc.

This week's Thematic Photographic prompt is "Blur". As photographers, we spend most of our energy trying to eliminate blur. Motion blur at least. The blur from a short depth of field is an often sought-after quality, but when something moves that we didn't expect the shot usually winds up shelved.

Which in most cases is all you can really do. But occasionally these accidents turn into some of the most intriguing photos we take. And on occasion, we'll even introduce motion blur on purpose.

The two shots below are examples of the former case. The serendipitous accident. If you've hung around this corner of the blogiverse for a while, you know my fascination with fireworks as a photographic subject. These two shots come from some of my earlier (though not earliest) experiments with this "very challenging" subject. The short version is I was still trying to figure out how to get a good fireworks shot and ... hadn't. So my shutter speed was far too slow to give me what I was after, but it did give me a couple of interesting shots.

These were taken at the "R2K" version of First Night Raleigh, on New Year's Eve 1999. My date and I were both in the IT field, and between us we had three beepers and two cell phones ready for the disaster that never came.

Come to think of it, even the memory of Y2K is pretty much a blur now.


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7 comments:

Mamie said...

Mojo, these shots look alive! Fabulous interpretation of the theme.

Pam said...

mojo-great shots...i always love the way light looks when blurred. most of mine are unintentional lol i had one great photo that i would have loved to put up, but it's not on this computer. i will have to see if it's on a cd. i'm up, btw, on herroyalness.blogspot.com

Doctor Err said...

woah

Doctor Err said...

woah

Robin said...

Getting a tripod so that I can shoot fireworks is next on my wish list.

I love that second shot. It's almost like an electric version of the twisted branches florists place in arrangements. Very cool.

Unknown said...

Gorgeous peace photo. I hope to get on the bandwagon with the peace blast effort soon.

Maria's Space said...

Mojo, These shots look great.

Looks very electrical.

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