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Weekly Photo Contest - 21 to 28 May | Blur

_timo_redux_

_timo_redux_

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 13, 2022
1,019
14,632
New York City
This week’s photo contest theme is: blur.

I was inspired by a recent call for entries at a photo site I often visit (maybe you saw it?):
https://theonlinephotographer.typep.../2023/05/bakers-dozen-the-blur-portfolio.html

I’ll quote here the judge’s rationale for what makes a good “blur” photograph, as it well-articulates my own biases:
The only requirement this time is that the picture should use some sort of blur. It can be any kind of blur: motion blur, panning, camera shake, a pinhole image, a picture that is all or mostly bokeh or is deliberately defocused, a picture taken with a soft-focus lens or filter or a toy camera, or anything else you can think of. Blur can affect all or only part of the picture. I will tend not to pick pictures that happen to be blurred but that would probably have been as good or better had they been sharp. The only sharp picture admissible would be of the English band Blur.
Click to expand...
(Mike Johnston, from https://theonlinephotographer.typep.../2023/04/bakers-dozen-call-for-work-blur.html )

DSC04483 1.jpg

(not a winning picture)


As always, standard rules apply:

  • The photographs must be your own work
  • You may only submit one photo per contest.
  • No commenting or liking photos until after the judging has taken place.
  • This contest runs for about a week, starting now.
  • At the end of the competition, the judge (last week's winner) will choose a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place photo, providing as much feedback as possible.
  • The 1st place winner will start a new thread here with the topic/theme of their choice, and act as the judge for that contest. (Winner has 48 hours to create new theme, after that it defers to 2nd place).
  • Be sure to update the Contest Master List as soon as you post a new theme.
  • Contest ends on May 28 at 12:00 PDT (UTC-7).
 
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tizeye

tizeye

macrumors 68040
Jul 17, 2013
3,091
34,002
Orlando, FL
akash.nu said:
Does this count?



One of the medieval town gates

Prague, Czech Republic

November 2022

iPhone 14 Pro Max
Click to expand...
That is actually one of my "someday" projects. Multiple long exposures with an ND filter, stack them together and get rid of the blur. :) Extreme test would be the always crowded St Marks courtyard in Venice. Would clear the courtyard, but wouldn't work to well with the static line waiting to get into the cathedral. Not making it to Venice this year, but the Romeo and Juliet balcony in Verona is bound to have pesky tourist milling around messing up my photo.

Will have to work on a photo this week. Do have one (or several) from last week, all thanks to pesky tourist getting in the way in front of the space shuttle Atlantis, and I was hand hold only preventing stackable shots.
 
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_timo_redux_

_timo_redux_

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 13, 2022
1,019
14,632
New York City
akash.nu said:
Does this count?

fcd245df5656c9512f48656de50a268e.jpg


One of the medieval town gates

Prague, Czech Republic

November 2022

iPhone 14 Pro Max
Click to expand...
Yes! But remember, the subject we’re looking for is about (not just contains) blur. One might ask one’s self: this a picture of about the people or the architecture?
 
_timo_redux_

_timo_redux_

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 13, 2022
1,019
14,632
New York City
Contest closed — thanks to all who participated and had a look.


@akash.nu

The ghosting is good: the people seem to be immaterial, but still present — rather than effaced. Again, too much of the balance of the photo is static, making it hard to say the photo is about blur, or that blur is essential to the photograph. I’d experiment with a tight crop of the people which would also emphasize the in-shadows buildings beyond — and beneficially crop out the could-be-anywhere facades immediately left and right.


@ovbacon

I like the stripped palette, such that blur is essential to the effect, implying motion in object, or internal strife in the subject. Given the fireball vignetting, I’m not sure if the mood is Blair Witch or Armageddon. The last beautiful deckchair moment before The End?


@mollyc

Blur as painterly. Blur reducing details to tone. I imagine for every winner at shaking the camera like this there are twenty messes. Well done.


@OldMacs4Me

Looks like fun. I see a little blur if I zoom in? I like it as an "action" picture (oh, my back!) rather than a "blur" picture.


@oblomow

As with @akash.nu ’s picture I’d prefer a (much) tighter crop; e.g., the foreground and the edges of the frame strike me as banal. For me, the picture’s strength lies with the contrast between the receding volumn and the static frame (the lamppost.) Please forgive me if “banal” offends: it can be very powerful to foreground something banal, but a concert of banal things rarely hangs together for me, or rather it rarely transcends itself.


1: @mollyc 🥇 🏆
2: @ovbacon 🥈
3: @oblomow 🥉
4: @akash.nu best 👻👻👻
 
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mollyc

mollyc

macrumors 604
Aug 18, 2016
7,841
47,663
_timo_redux_ said:
Contest closed — thanks to all who participated and had a look.


@akash.nu

The ghosting is good: the people seem to be immaterial, but still present — rather than effaced. Again, too much of the balance of the photo is static, making it hard to say the photo is about blur, or that blur is essential to the photograph. I’d experiment with a tight crop of the people which would also emphasize the in-shadows buildings beyond — and beneficially crop out the could-be-anywhere facades immediately left and right.


@ovbacon

I like the stripped palette, such that blur is essential to the effect, implying motion in object, or internal strife in the subject. Given the fireball vignetting, I’m not sure if the mood is Blair Witch or Armageddon. The last beautiful deckchair moment before The End?


@mollyc

Blur as painterly. Blur reducing details to tone. I imagine for every winner at shaking the camera like this there are twenty messes. Well done.


@oblomow

As with @akash.nu ’s picture I’d prefer a (much) tighter crop; e.g., the foreground and the edges of the frame strike me as banal. For me, the picture’s strength lies with the contrast between the receding volumn and the static frame (the lamppost.) Please forgive me if “banal” offends: it can be very powerful to foreground something banal, but a concert of banal things rarely hangs together for me, or rather it rarely transcends itself.


1: @mollyc 🥇 🏆
2: @ovbacon 🥈
3: @oblomow 🥉
4: @akash.nu best 👻👻👻
Click to expand...

thank you! but you forgot oldmacs4me! 🙈
 
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ovbacon

ovbacon

Suspended
Feb 13, 2010
1,596
11,499
Tahoe, CA
_timo_redux_ said:
Contest closed — thanks to all who participated and had a look.


@akash.nu

The ghosting is good: the people seem to be immaterial, but still present — rather than effaced. Again, too much of the balance of the photo is static, making it hard to say the photo is about blur, or that blur is essential to the photograph. I’d experiment with a tight crop of the people which would also emphasize the in-shadows buildings beyond — and beneficially crop out the could-be-anywhere facades immediately left and right.


@ovbacon

I like the stripped palette, such that blur is essential to the effect, implying motion in object, or internal strife in the subject. Given the fireball vignetting, I’m not sure if the mood is Blair Witch or Armageddon. The last beautiful deckchair moment before The End?


@mollyc

Blur as painterly. Blur reducing details to tone. I imagine for every winner at shaking the camera like this there are twenty messes. Well done.


@OldMacs4Me

Looks like fun. I see a little blur if I zoom in? I like it as an "action" picture (oh, my back!) rather than a "blur" picture.


@oblomow

As with @akash.nu ’s picture I’d prefer a (much) tighter crop; e.g., the foreground and the edges of the frame strike me as banal. For me, the picture’s strength lies with the contrast between the receding volumn and the static frame (the lamppost.) Please forgive me if “banal” offends: it can be very powerful to foreground something banal, but a concert of banal things rarely hangs together for me, or rather it rarely transcends itself.


1: @mollyc 🥇 🏆
2: @ovbacon 🥈
3: @oblomow 🥉
4: @akash.nu best 👻👻👻
Click to expand...
Thanks for feedback and for an interesting contest...
 
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akash.nu

akash.nu

macrumors G4
May 26, 2016
10,824
16,931
Nice shots. Good one guys. Thanks for the feedback [mention]_timo_redux_ [/mention] I guess I’m just not used to shaky shots. In fact I delete them if they’re not clearly what I intended for.
 
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_timo_redux_

_timo_redux_

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 13, 2022
1,019
14,632
New York City
akash.nu said:
Nice shots. Good one guys. Thanks for the feedback [mention]_timo_redux_ [/mention] I guess I’m just not used to shaky shots. In fact I delete them if they’re not clearly what I intended for.
Click to expand...
I also have only a handful, and I myself am not good at them ... but what's interesting here, I'd argue, is if blur (or something else de-focussed) is essential or integral to the picture, what do you have? That's interesting perhaps only because it's the opposite of what we usually want, with e.g., camera shake just resulting in a mistake. Or to put it another way: when does working with the opposite of what we might typically value get us somewhere? It might not. But it might.
 
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