Keep Your Blurry Photos, Too

Blurry photos are the arch nemesis of scrapbookers, photographers, and memory keepers. With all our current technology available on digital cameras, smartphones, and DSLRs, we are able to view and edit our camera roll photos instantly. That instant option helps to avoid those blurry photos. But what if I said, you should keep and scrapbook blurry photos, too?! Gasp! It feels like a taboo word and against all the perfectionist thoughts in my head.

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So why would I suggest such a thing?

Although we are able to instantly view and edit our photos, that doesn’t mean we always get the best image or capture that instant action shot. You have probably seen the blurry photos on your camera roll, I know they are on mine more often than I like. The kind of blurry photos where you capture your kids running, playing outside, or dancing. The blurry photo where you don’t have the best lighting. Or the blurry selfie of you and a friend laughing instead of the serious “duck face” selfie.

It’s those times where you wish that the blurry photo wasn’t blurry! It captures the memory you wanted, but it doesn’t feel “right” to keep or print a blurry picture. So you either delete it, choose another photo that you like less, or don’t document the memory at all.  For me, those blurry photos are usually the ones I hesitate to delete or keep on my phone to look at, but decide not to print.

But you have to tell the story!

The scrapbooker and memory maker in me says “You have to print the photo! You have to tell that story!” Although the photo isn’t perfect, it reflects the feeling and memory you are trying to capture.  Printing the blurry photo is not the obvious choice nor is it the easy choice. You have to put aside perfectionism and tell your story.

Recently I experienced the dilemma of printing a blurry photo and it’s where I came upon the theory to keep some of the blurry photos.

Around Halloween we had a family party and my daughter was nearly 18 months and enjoying her playtime outside. I took some photos of my daughter and her cousins running and playing together in the yard. As you may know, trying to get an 18-month old pose for a picture is near impossible, so I wanted to get the action shots of her playing.

I took a ton of photos that evening and went back to edit them later. As I flipped through my camera roll on my phone, I was disappointed that I didn’t have many clear photos of her running. I didn’t quite get the action shot I was hoping for in a clear, crisp photo. However, I still kept a few blurry images because I loved how they captured the memory of the evening. Once I decided to scrapbook, I couldn’t decide on which photo I wanted to include in the layout. The other photos were clear, but they didn’t get across the feeling I wanted to express and document.

Since I was using the Project Life App, I was able to test each of the photos to see what I liked best. I kept coming back to the blurry photo because it captured the memory and feeling of the evening. Even though it wasn’t the “best” quality photo, it was the perfect photo to remember how much fun my daughter had that evening.

Scrapbook blurry photos

Don’t write off those blurry photos, don’t immediately consider them for the trash. If that photo speaks to you and captures the memory you want to share, keep the blurry photo! Print it and use it in your layouts. Tame those perfectionist tendencies to only document stories with perfect images. Look beyond the imperfections of your photo and enjoy the story you documented.

I want to hear from you – have you found yourself wanting to use a blurry photo, but couldn’t bring yourself to print it? Or do you embrace the imperfections and scrapbook blurry photos?

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As usual, don’t forget to lead your best creative life today!
Julie