Flower farm

Here's Part II of summer photos!
Back in December 2013 I posted photos that I took at Great Falls National Park, as I felt like with the cold weather and snow we could use some summery photos. As we're now even further into the depths of winter, I think these bright, beautiful flowers are just what is needed!

Foreground Bokeh

One day of the 30 day photography challenge in January was "bokeh". I've previously published here examples of the bokeh shots I did over Christmas, as Christmas lights make such a great background for beautiful blurred lights. Since I had recently done that type of shot, I wanted to try something different for this challenge and to experiment with foreground bokeh. In this scenario, the subject is behind the lights, but you still want to try for the nice blurred effect. I discovered that it's a lot harder to do than the more traditional bokeh, and I may not have used the most ideal light source for my bokeh, but at the end I was pleased with a few of the shots that I got. 

Christmas Light Bokeh: Let's make shapes!

 One of my photography-related Christmas presents this year is a Bokeh kit. I've wanted one of these for a while now, but didn't really have any reason for it - that's what Christmas is for! I've posted previously some shots I took using Christmas lights to get that nice bokeh effect, but there's only so much you can do about the shape of the bokeh, as it's based a lot on the sensor for your camera. In order to alter the shape of the lights, you need to place something over the front of the camera lens. You can create your own cut outs in different shapes to alter the light, but I've never really had the patience to do that. So, bring on the kit! It comes with over 20 differently shaped cut outs that I can place over the lens and change the shape of the light. It was then just a matter of finding a subject and the right cut out...and here's what I came up with!

Christmas Light Bokeh

This year is the first time that I've had the physical space, equipment, and time to truly try to capture Christmas light bokeh. For those of you who may not know, "bokeh" is a Japanese term for how the lens renders the out of focus part of a photo - for example, the light in the background. By positioning objects in different locations in the foreground, you can make some very interesting effects! I've had a lot of fun this week experimenting with bokeh, and will have more to share! For now, here are the Christmas-y subjects I used earlier in the week.