Willing to Fail

You certainly know the feeling when one of your photographs didn’t come out as planned. There is of course some disappointment. But then, you’ve probably learned something new. Whenever you try something new you should be prepared to fail. No, you should be willing to fail. Then and only then will you proceed in your endeavours.

The featured image above didn’t come out as planned. I wanted a panning shot of the motorbike with a completely blurred background. So I chose a fairly long exposure time of 1/15 s. Ok, the background is nicely blurred. But of course I wanted a tack sharp motorbike in the picture. Well, that didn’t quite work out. Am I disappointed about the result? Not at all! I really like the image. It may not be your cup of tea but I’m very happy with that look. After all, the motorbike is still recognizable as such. And the picture certainly is an eye-catcher.

I like blurry photos. At least sometimes. With an exposure time of 1 second, camera shake was a matter of course. But you can never tell in advance if the result of an intentional shake is aesthetically pleasing or if it just results in unsightly lines and color blobs. And one should by no means assume that the subject is unimportant, because it is blurred anyway. On the contrary, the motif should definitely have some strong graphic qualities to begin with.

An yes, most of the attempts at blurry photos will end in the virtual garbage can. You must be willing to fail in order to get a great shot once in a while.

You don’t know what the heck you see in that image obove? Never mind, I won’t tell you. Because it’s not important. The vibrant colors and the graphic lines are all there is. Sometimes that’s enough. But again, be prepared to fail. Abstracts don’t always work. But if they do they make strong impressions.

Failing is a must. Just press the shutter button and see what happens. If you fail you’ve probably learned something along the way. Don’t they say “if you learned something new it’s been a good day”?