When we take photos, often we are looking for the perfect shot, or we have some idea of what we want in the picture; A smile, capturing an activity, an emotion.

It can be disappointing, when you go through and find a whole lot of blurry pictures.

That used to be me.

I would be disheartened to find blur ( often because I was laughing too hard).

If I came across a picture that was blurred, I would delete it straight away.

After a while I started to look at them differently.

Blurry photos have a unique beauty all of their own and can portray alot of emotion.

I wanted to take photos of the kids playing with glitter. I used a floodlight and a tripod, so I didn’t have to use the flash (I am not a lover of flash photography) and to try to prevent the shutter lag that I always get inside.

It worked great…

so long as the children sat very, very still.

Of course, we all know kids hate to sit still and with all of the glitter flying around, it was just plain fun and games and the kids spent the whole time laughing and, well, moving.

I was unhappy with the results.


After a while though, I started to appreciate the blur. It captured the happiness and the fun of the shoot and I will always have those memories, despite the ‘imperfection’ of the photos.

In time, you may even want to explore purposely having blur in your photos.

• A blurred photo can show movement.

An easy way to capture movement, is to turn your flash off and rely on natural light. There should be a feature on your camera that allows you to do this. It creates a long lag time on your shutter speed to give you a cool blur.

In this photo, I wanted to catch the simple delight of Ivy and Noah sitting on the verandah, legs swinging over the side.

I think the movement helps to capture the essence of this.

• Try focusing on one point.

A very wise photographer once told me, that a little bit of movement brings life to the photo.

In this photo, I asked Ivy to spin but before doing so, I focused on her face. It created movement but I was also able to keep Ivy’s face as the focus of the shot. It is one of my favourites. I think it captures a very real time in her childhood.

• Blurring the background or foreground can add depth.

Focusing on a certain point and blurring the foreground or the background in a photo can add dimension to your photo. It can also help in capturing the memory appropriately.

In this photo, the girls’ faces are blurred.

To some this would be a disaster but I planned it that way.

I wanted to focus on their feet but I also wanted to capture their length. i wanted to show how grown they were, the size of their feet was my focus point but by including the blur, I think it I was able to show how long and willowy they have become too.

It added dimension.

So, a blurry photo can be a beautiful photo. You just need to look at it from a different perspective.

Remember, blurry photos aren’t necessarily ruined photos.

They can show, movement, tell a story, and show great emotion.

I hope you’ll be able to look at your blurry beauties differently now!


When Tiff isn’t sprouting photography tips, she is blogging about life with seven little Australians over at Three Ring Circus.