When you take pictures, the presence of blur, by being out of focus, motion of camera, or motion of subject ruins the shot you took. But, when it comes to action sports blur can tell the story of motion. Yesterday I was at my son’s football game and was on the chain gang. That gave me a chance to take pictures close to the action. Using a dslr wouldn’t work and using a smartphone wouldn’t either. I used my Sony RX100 which is prosumer compact camera, it has a full size sensor at 20 megapixel with a leica lens, so it can capture photos that look as good as a dslr. Working the chains I couldn’t be distracted fussing with the camera so I put it in programmed mode and just shot away, pointing the camera in the direction of the action and not looking at the screen. The following are shots that tell a story.
The below shows left red defender in focus. The ball runner is blurred with motion, but his left hand extended is not. The right defender’s movement makes it look like he isn’t significant threat.
I was panning with the runner so he is in focus whereas everyone else is blurry in their movement relative to him.
The kids running towards me are clear, the defender to the right is crossing. So he is blurred showing his speed towards the ball carrier.
At the start of a play everyone is clear, except the ball which is moving faster so it is blurry.
Normally with my camera I would focus on getting shots with no blurriness like.
The ball carrier being tackled is in focus as he is moving slower than the rest and he is moving towards the camera.
Everyone is moving in the same direction. There is little blur as 5 defenders are after the ball carrier.
Here are a few more. You get the idea. These blurry pictures worked well to tell the action of the game. I guess blurriness is not such a bad thing.
Here is a photo with little blur. Final score 33-0.
