I generally try to ensure that my photos are in focus. It’s kinda important in most cases (for the sort of pictures I make, at least). Sometimes however, despite my best intentions, they are not in focus – perhaps due to missing focus, or sometimes due to camera shake adding some unintended blur.

Sometimes it doesn’t really matter. Sometimes you still like the photograph despite it’s flaws. Sometimes they might even enhance it.

Today’s photo is one such example. It was taken under the railway bridge that passes over Blackfriars Road just north of Soutwark Underground station, carrying the line heading east/west in and out of Waterloo. The light beneath the bridge was quite dim and I had to lower my shutter speed somewhat. I also needed to be quick to try and catch the image while people were placed in a pleasing way and also when no road traffic (of which there was much) was passing through the scene. These factors likely combined to cause a small but noticeable amount of camera shake in the the resulting picture.

Perhaps the photo would have been better had it been perfectly sharp, but the slight fuzziness is pleasing in some way. It gives the picture a slight vintage feel somehow that I’m quite pleased with. I don’t tend to publish photos that I believe are mistakes unless they rise above their shorcomings, and I think that this is one of them (for me, at least).

Olympus OM-1, F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 & Fujifilm Acros (pushed to 400asa).

Taken on 23 October 2019