GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Sharpness is nice, but not that important.

Since I got back into the hobby, I decided to take baby photos I had previously posted on Facebook and repost them here. While doing this exercise, I also took a chance to review and tweak the photos. The funny thing is that almost all those photos are blurry. They looked ok when I posted them on Facebook, but now that I’m looking at them on my big monitor in Photoshop…Wow they are soft!

Along with being a first time parent I was also in the middle of a remodel and changing jobs. I was so shell shocked I wasn’t even really using my DSLR then. And that’s a 10 year old D40. So I wasn’t rocking any sophisticated gear. These are “pure” baby photos – taken indoors on an ipad.

Of course, I’d prefer that these photos be sharp. But I’d trade my sharp photos of other subjects for these killer blurry moments. And that really does hit the heart of the matter, photographs are the result of many tradeoffs. I traded the chance for a better low light SLR for the financial secuirty of extra savings. I traded the better lens and larger sensor of my D40 for the convenience of an ipad. I traded high ISOs and noise for a better shutter speed. And often I traded a sharp photo taken at the same time for a more soft photo that better caught the moment. As I’ve been reading about photography these past couple months, its become clear to me that everything is a trade. You really don’t get anything for free.