"We played, we laughed, we explored, we shared, we supported each other, cheered each other on, learned, and shed...

"We played, we laughed, we explored, we shared, we supported each other, cheered each other on, learned, and shed the shackles of clarity for the joy and freedom of blurry wonder." ~ Su Buehler

Terrific album, Su! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and images from your time in Alex Lapidus's "Blurs and Unsharp Photography" mentorship!

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For anyone who has read this far, consider mentoring someone else here (or more) ... some people don't even know where to start with their cameras and you could be the change they need in their lives. Even the smallest bit of knowledge can be passed on and you can create your mentorship in many different ways. Imagine the feeling of taking someone to their next level, paying forward the knowledge you've received and watching someone blossom with enthusiasm and accomplishment! Find out how you can get that feeling for yourself here → https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2AGAbjLwjUcY0ZiNHlHY2FoNlU/view?usp=sharing

Originally shared by Su Buehler

The past several weeks have found me extremely and happily busy learning how to create abstract and interesting scenes using Blurs and Unsharp Photography. This has opened wide a whole world of interesting techniques and methods of creating art wherein the story lies not only in the scene, but even more in the colours, blurry shapes and wiggly lines, motion, dynamic ranges, patterns and wonderful splashes of "what?"-dom.

This was the result of my participation in a +G+ Mentorship Program for Photographers led by Alex Lapidus, Heiko Mahr and Robin Griggs Wood. What a truly amazing experience! What an unbelievable gift that these generous people share with those willing to learn, to work, to play, to create, to imagine.

Over the course of 8 weeks, they shared a different blurry topic each week, giving the participants a chance to shoot hundreds of images in many different styles, giving them the freedom to explore ideas and share experiences that are typically considered less than "correct". Isn't the idea to have the most tack-sharp images possible? Photographers go to great lengths, spend thousands of dollars on lenses and cameras, hoping to achieve the perfect clarity, and now we were being allowed to not only have out of focus images, but intentionally create blurry, fuzzy, distorted, stretched and otherwise warped images! And oh, what fun we had!

We played, we laughed, we explored, we shared, we supported each other, cheered each other on, learned, and shed the shackles of clarity for the joy and freedom of blurry wonder.

What came of this for me was a new sense of artistic perspective. Even though I may not shoot blurs frequently, what I have found is that some blur provides such a wonderful sense of motion and emotion that it is likely to find it's way into my photography on a fairly regular basis. I love colour, shadows and light, refraction, reflection, distortion, I love to make the viewer think and ponder and wonder and blink. We go through life too often without thinking, without sensing and without questioning the world around us, simply believing it will always be thus.

But the world is too big and too diverse to even consider that it will always be the way we think of it now. I'm so looking forward to continuing to explore a blurry and fuzzy and unsharp world, and play to my heart's content, and I fully intend to share the joy that I have found in this world. I hope that someone else will also enjoy what I share.