Theme: bokeh

[Nancy Bell]

I think this theme is a bit elusive and hard to make the subject of the image. This image has bokeh in the bkgd, as I usually think of bokeh.

Photographed in my garden (I enjoy seeing what comes up each week) on one of the many soft, cloudy days right now. Deer love these lily buds and I discovered a deer-go-away spray that is mighty stinky but works. I run around and spray it every couple of days. Deer also love hosta and jump the chain link fence to eat it!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Yes humans can eat the buds too. Very pretty and the bg colour is very lovely with the complimentary red and green. I had problems with the term "bokeh" as well. When I googled it it was pictures of little OOF circles, but I think it can be a very soft OOF bg too.

[Dennis Bishop]

The colors and the rapidly-diminishing focus are very effective. The magic, though, is that bud. Its placement, orientation, and color do a lot to make the image even more pleasing than it would be without it.

[Paul Lagasi]

I looked through some of my photos trying to find any with bokeh, so far I've found none. I also went the internet route to see what bokeh was before I searched. Lovely lily image, I've always loved these plants, front garden in our home has these beauties. Well done.

[Diane Miller]

A gorgeous image with lovely composition and colors and beautiful DOF.

As I understand it, bokeh isn't a "feature" such as DOF is, but it describes the quality of the OOF areas of an image. Some lenses (the more expensive ones) have good bokeh in that they exhibit the smoothest gradations in OOF areas. A classic example that can show bad bokeh is the sparkles of small OOF water highlights or tiny spots of sunlight through trees. You don't create good bokeh, you buy it.

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you everyone! And Diane, thanks for the explanation of bokeh. We'll see what folks come up with to post! Good or bad bokeh...is in the eye of the beholder and all goes for OOTB!

[Mitch Carucci]

The soft (cloudy) light works well with these lilies. As Dennis said, the bud is an important elements. It balances the composition for me.

[Mitch Carucci]

Jackie,

Have you tried eating them? I did a few years back, and found they had very little flavor. Perhaps the variety I had in my yard was not a good one...

[Anita Bower]

I think the bokeh in this image is soft and lovely. I wish I were not travelling so I could enter this theme as I use bokeh a lot.

These are beautiful lilies. Wonderful color. I like that the bokeh is the same color as the flowers.

I wonder about cropping the image and focusing on the bud or the flower on the left. That would provide a focus for my eye.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Nancy, I had a few minutes of computer time and wanted to comment on bokeh. I really like your image and the bokeh. What lens were you using? I seem to get great bokeh with my Canon 70-200 f-4 lens and with the 100-400 (which I recently sold). My favorite bokeh comes from a Russian Helios lens that I bought on eBay for $75. It is known for it's bokeh and I know why because I get great bokeh with it. I wish I were there to post some examples. I'll try to catch up when I get home.

[stuart wanuck]

lovely composition

[Nancy Bell]

Cheryl, I used the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro. An oldie, but a goodie.

Anita, I see what you are saying about cropping and focusing on the flower or the bud. I did quite a few images with these flowers, including images as you suggest. For this one I wanted more of a "flowerscape".

Thank you Mitch & Stuart. Mitch, as much as I liked the concept proposed by Euell Gibbons and "Stalking the Wild Asparagus", I never liked anything I tried!