I headed out on the Cambridge toy safari last week.
A lot of my photos were pretty, tourist shots. I’d never been to Cambridge before and it really drew me in, in a way a lot of places don’t. That said, a lot of my photos were toy photos (d’uh). But a LOT of my toy photos were also incredibly blurry. So this post is to kind of honour that blur. After all, out-of-focus photos have a lot of be said for them. Right?
For me, blurry photos are pretty much par the course, but never more so than when I’m trying to take a relatively quick photo whilst out and about. I don’t have much in the way of technical camera ability and more often than not, I’ll put the camera down, and shoot a whole bunch of shots, hoping for that one good one. I’ll play with the f-stop, I’ll change the ISO and I might change the exposure, but other than that? Point and shoot! This results in a good chunk of blur though!
Blur can be interesting
Despite the fact that it can be irritating to get something out-of-focus when you are after something in particular, there is something I like about out-of-focus shots. Especially the ones that leave you guessing. The ones that are more like abstract paintings than failures in photography.
Ed and Sam, hidden in blur. Interesting?
I thought I would share some of my out-of-focus shots from the toy safari. Because whilst they might not be traditional toy photos, they are made using toys. I’ve included some blurry photos that are a bit less abstract, as well as the more abstract ones. I’ve also shared the final outcome shot, so you get some actual toy photos as well!
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- Dinky door in abstract. Keeps you guessing.
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- Dinky door upclose.
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- The blurry federation. Not particularly interesting blur.
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- Focused in their wonderings
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- The light of blur.
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- May you be well(ish) lit.
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- Yeah, what is this? Too out-of-focus?
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- It’s a rainy day Porg!
Do you like to make things a little abstract? Do blurry photos do it for you? Or do you like everything to be crisp and in-focus? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to see what people think about accidental and intentional out-of-focus photos!
- Lizzi
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very interesting concept! personally I like the out of focus Yoda one better than the in focus one.
I love out of focus toy photos.
One of the first I took was two years ago. It was Shaak Ti and Ahsoka which looked like Batman out of focus. I asked people to guess on IG and of course, everyone fell in the trap.
I still take that kind of picture once in a while, when I’ve got a beautiful bokeh and some interesting shape. Maybe I should start posting them online…
also, the picture at the top of the article reminds me of the impressionist painters
I personally enjoy blurry & unsharp photos. I participated in the Mentorship program on G+ and loved learnig how to play with the whole concept.