Star of India photo - Any thoughts?

Vanessa wrote:

This photo was taken aboard the Star of India, San Diego, CA - Aug 21, 2010. Just random blur? Any thoughts?

Well just off the top of my head, I see a great deal of motion blur. That suggests to me that the digital camera which was used was not a low-light camera and had to adjust its exposure time in order to take the picture. That's usually the cause of motion blur in low-light areas.

When the exposure time is increased significantly it can lead to strange effects such as this. My gut feeling tells me that perhaps there was a towel or coat or other item hanging on the wall and it fell down or moved significantly during the taking of the picture. The "ghosting" effect you see seems to be of some object moving downward. And the original position suggests that its something hanging on the wall.

This photo was taken aboard the Star of India, San Diego, CA - Aug 21, 2010. Just random blur? Any thoughts?