I'm feeling very proud of my son who passed his belt testing last Friday in his Taekwando class. He graduated from a white belt to an orange belt.



I used My K-30 set to ISO 3200 with a F 50mm f/1.7 lens set at f/3.5. The room was photographically dark but I did not use a flash.

I know we all try for the sharpest image with the lowest noise and the best composition but this is one of those snapshot moments when I threw a lot of that out the window. My heart was with my son and my shutter finger followed. There's motion blur from a slow shutter and there's a lot of sensor noise too. Some would consider a photo like this a technical failure and it may be on some level. I don't care. To me this is a success and it will be my favorite for a long, long time.

Turns out, we don't all try for the sharpest image, at least I don't. My aim is the image with the most impact, that tells the story. The idea that am image must be silly sharp is silly. Sharpness is not a requirement of art, its just sharpness. It may be essential to an image, like the proper pause is to a musical composition but it has no inherent wonderfulness. The craft is "how" and the "art" is why, tangle all that up with emotional content and it's complicated. The audience for this image is Dad, all Dads. Having this photo is a world more important than not having it. A dad recently bought a ballet photo I made of his daughter where she had an obvious error in the move. Didn't matter to Dad, he thought she was perfect. He was right. To quote Bryan Petersen, "You keep shooting".

[hmirchev]

I think the shot is very good. Congrats to your son i see a black belt for him in the near future

[sam-joseph]

I see some broken doors, walls, roof tiles etc. Good action shot with real meaning.

Regards

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Last edited by sam-joseph; 03-31-2014 at 03:19 AM. Reason: Typo

[kyricom]

I shoot sports all the time. Sharp shots are great, but the aren't the only good shots. Sometimes a little blur to connote motion makes it better. I think this is a nice shot. Plus, having the subject be your son makes it all the more meaningful (been there. Still look at those shots many years later)



.

[Cee Cee]

a great action shot, I like the sight blur on the kicking leg, it denotes the speed of the kick. I don't think the noise is all that bad but if it worries you there is plenty of noise reduction software out there ("neat image" for example - and its free),
cheers

[6BQ5]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

I showed this picture to my son the next day and he was amazed at what he looked like. Little brother was even more amazed! It looks like there will be brotherly competition between two little boys in the near future.

[Heie]

Very very cool. I wish I had done something like this when I was younger. If he stays with it, it will serve him well throughout his life - I never had that kind of discipline/regimen as a kid and had to have it forced on me when I joined the Army.

He'll be well prepared for things beyond the belt.

-Heie

[FozzFoster]

I'm feeling very proud of my son who passed his belt testing last Friday in his Taekwando class. He graduated from a white belt to an orange belt.



I used My K-30 set to ISO 3200 with a F 50mm f/1.7 lens set at f/3.5. The room was photographically dark but I did not use a flash.

I know we all try for the sharpest image with the lowest noise and the best composition but this is one of those snapshot moments when I threw a lot of that out the window. My heart was with my son and my shutter finger followed. There's motion blur from a slow shutter and there's a lot of sensor noise too. Some would consider a photo like this a technical failure and it may be on some level. I don't care. To me this is a success and it will be my favorite for a long, long time.

incredible action shot! indoors too! really well done!

[Photogoof]

This is done very well!

[Heie]

Holy thread resurrection, Batman