Day 147 - Bokeh of Flowers

japanese tree lilac

This is the first, fairly poor experimental photo in my new occasional series on Bokeh.

Bokeh is a word I've only learned recently.  It's a Japanese word (暈け) meaning blur, or haze. However its meaning with respect to photography is more subtle.  It's used to describe the aesthetic quality of the out of focus parts of a photo.

There seems to be much discussion between photographers over what exactly constitutes good or bad bokeh, but it seems fairly straightforward to me...if you find the blur pleasing, then it's good, if you don't like it, then it's bad!

Some will argue that there are specific, technical characteristics that make bokeh good, but this seems contradictory to me.  You can't write a rule that describes an aesthetic quality, surely?  Aestheticism is about finding beauty in things, and beauty, of course, is in the eye of the holder...it's purely subjective. 

All of which mainly serves to justify my opinion that this photo has good bokeh.  If you google bokeh images, you will find that this picture isn't typical...but I like it!

...so ner...

Anyway, I intend to experiment a little with this effect, as the creative, artistic element of photography is really starting to appeal to me.  So look out for some good bokeh in my pictures now and then.  I may or may not mention it, so you'll have to pay attention...

;-)

I'm also toying with the idea of putting together a post chronologically charting the progression in my photography throughout this blog, since the early days of my simple point and shoot style.

Look out for that, as we approach the halfway mark in the strange and surprising journey that is my 5oh1aDay blog.

Right, nice and short, early one today...I'm off to get my Saturday night on!

B-)