Photography prompt 4

My first bokeh image.
May it be the first of many...

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"Bokeh (from the Japanese boke ボケ, "blur") is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens. Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

This week try focusing on achieving good "Bokeh", also known as "circles of confusion"

When I first read this prompt I though "Yay - great - I've been meaning to go back to the depth of field stuff I was trying out with my camera last week!" So I looked around on the 'net to try and remind myself which bits of my camera I had to twiddle to change the aperture and went out to take flower photos.

Then I came back and while I was downloading my photos to the PC I took a quick look at the flickr discussion Ann mentioned. That led me to this discussion and by that time I realsied that there is far more to bokeh that just getting a narrow depth of field. Well - it's a Japanese term. What should I have expected. Their whole outlook on life is so much more spiritual and complete, and generally much more beautiful, than that of Western society.

For years I always tried to get the whole of a photo in sharp focus. I blame it on my terrible short-sightedness. I love photos by Edwin Smith (who also had terrible sight apparently), especially his architectural shots, because they are so crisp and clear; almost otherworldy in their extreme sharpness. And he used an old bellows type camera to get his beautiful images.


Didmarton Church by Edwin Smith (1961)

Looking at the bokeh images has shown me the beauty that exists in not seeing everything, the intensity that can be achieved through a strong focus on a specific part of a viewpoint. I'll never stop loving the clarity of Edwin Smith but I will also be a lot more flexible in my photography now. Thanks Ann!

My favourites from the flickr groups:
(there's 4475 images in one group so far and so far I only managed
to look at the first 200 or so)


blueberry nights by Sikario

One specially for Caroline:
_MG_4119 by sundow.moonkiss

quiznight10 by eljustinoid

red guirland by yukka1507