Pam's Week 16: Everything's So Blurry And Everyone's So Fake..

And everybody's empty and everything is so messed up...Interestingly enough, the lyric that popped into my head to accompany this week's topic so perfectly sums up my entire week!  (I also came to the realization that I posted last week's blog without a musical reference at all - I must have been completely off my game...)  No need to relive the gory details (poor Sharon was subjected to all of them during an impromptu glass of wine at a friend's house after helping me complete this week's assignment - some thanks that was); suffice it to say that this has been an extraordinarily awful week that I was glad to see come to an end.  Thankfully the sun is shining today and although it's still a little chilly, it is back into the positive numbers at midday so we'll pretend the below zeros overnight are not still occurring at the end of April...

So this week's topic was "Blur".  When I read it, I thought easy-peasy lemon squeezy.  I am really good at taking blurry photos; it's taking clear, focussed ones that I usually find more challenging.  Of course, just an ordinary out of focus picture was not what I was hoping to achieve.  I wanted an artistically rendered blur.  There were just a few little problems:  1)  I don't know how to achieve such a goal; 2)  the weather sucked with a capital S; 3)  I was having a bad week and wasn't particularly motivated to do much other than that which I had to do and drink the mojitos Robert decided to whip up one evening.  I googled "blurry photography" and there are some stunning images but I was not able to reproduce any of them.  Last night, though I was already in my pj's, I texted Sharon a little "help" message and the good friend that she is, she drove over to my house, helped pile my kids and bikes into the back of our van, and she drove me around town, giving me step by step instructions on how to achieve an artistically creative blurry look.  Then she drove me over to Kathy's house for a glass of wine - she's a really good friend, that Sharon.

Sharon encouraged me to move the camera while taking a photo of our lego table in the play room, saying that the geometric shapes would look cool in blur - she was right!

I then thought the playroom rug could look equally funky if I could figure out a way to turn the camera as I snapped the picture...

One thought I had was to capture Danica spinning around while wearing one of her regular everyday tutus.  The problem was there was too much light, I couldn't see the camera screen with the camera over my head in order to see what exactly I was taking a photo of, and Danica kept spinning out of my area of focus.  The ones I took on my own didn't have much blur though you could see motion.  Sharon suggested the changes that made this photo possible.

I had also considered taking pictures of my kids on their bicycles and spent loads of time trying it last Sunday afternoon but without Sharon's assistance, that photo was a bust too.  This one has too much light and more blur than I was actually aiming for but I thought it was a little bit cool (plus I would hated to not use one of the shots Sharon was thinking to capture for herself but so kindly shared with me).

I had jokingly said to Sharon that perhaps if I got drunk I'd be able to take a blurry photo or at least things may look blurry to me as I snap the photo and I could have funny stories to accompany the shots.  At the time, I didn't realize that we'd end up at Kathy's for a glass of wine.  I assure you that I wasn't actually drunk in these shots taken from the moving vehicle, though I imagine this is how they may appear to a drunk.  I also assure you that I wasn't driving the vehicle this time as I took the pictures!

I really wanted a picture of a moving train - that would be so fantastic (at least it was in my brain), but all I found on our endeavour was train tracks, which aren't that exciting themselves.  Sharon suggested I set up our tripod and try throwing things in front of the camera today but I didn't get around to that.  We did, however, attend the final Over the Rainbow Children's Theatre production today and I wish photography had been allowed as the opportunities for blur were incredible.  I had already snapped this photo of one of the men playing the balafon before they requested that no photos be taken.  You can hardly tell he has hands in this picture!

I am very thankful to Sharon for providing inspiration and opportunity as well as further camera education to allow this blog post to be possible this week.  I'm a little nervous to see what this next week holds.  The weather forecast looks more promising so I am hopeful the whole week is a drastic improvement over this past one.  Looking at this week's assignment, I'm thinking that this week I will at least have a good excuse if I'm not happy with any of my photos - my eyes were closed!

Have a good one everyone!