At the fair
Normally I don’t like photographs that are blurred all over.
Call me old-fashioned, but in my opinion they usually look like mistakes, with the mistake covered up by calling it ‘Art’.
In general, I believe that at least one section of a photograph should be in focus and sharp. But there are always exceptions to every rule.
And I think this is one of them.
All right … all right … so I’m biased. After all, it is my photograph.
So why do I think this one works, despite the lack of any sort of sharpness?
I like it because it shows a scene with which very many people will be familiar. And I feel that it captures that scene in a way to which people can relate. There’s the expression on the woman driver’s face, and her active pose. She’s swinging her car around to the right, up and into the picture. There’s the swirl of colours – and they are a swirl – that grade from cool blue at the left to warm orange at the right. And the bumper car is moving into the orange. There is a hint of the other fair-goers and bumper cars, but they are only a hint, and they are even more blurred. No other people appear in the photograph, so concentrating the viewer’s attention on the couple. To me it captures something of the spirit of the night.
I took it the early hours of this morning, at about 1 o’clock, at the Fêtes de Genève. This is the annual summer festival when the Swiss city of Geneva goes berserk and people let their hair down. (Geneva is not the sombre Calvinist place people would have you believe.)
I was wandering the fairground with a 50mm f1.4 prime lens on my camera. That’s a pretty fast lens. But even so, with the lens wide open, I had to have the ISO rating turned up to 800 in order to get a manageable shutter speed. Again … I usually like to keep the ISO rating down as low as possible because the higher you turn it up, the more noise you get. But, in this case, the presence of a little bit of noise adds a sense of immediacy to the image.
Yes, I like this photograph and am well-pleased with it. What do you think?
I see the aspects of the photo that you are talking about and like and I get it. I still feel that it this photo is half very cool and half a miss. There is more sharpness on the bumper car behind the subject I think it’s too bad that you didn’t get it at least on the shoulder of your subject. If you like it though- I can see why
Thanks for your input. Much appreciated! Yes, I can see what you mean about half the bumper car behind and to the left. The photo would be better off either without it, or with a bit more showing. Back to the fairground …