Unknown Plant, San Mateo, California

Sorry, I couldn't find what kind of plant this is. But I did want to talk about bokeh. Bokeh is the Japanese word for fuzzy. In photography, we use bokeh to describe the aesthetic and qualitative measure of light distortion in the out of focus areas of the photograph. It is a rather hard thing to quantify, as it is very subjective. Generally speaking, when the light forms more circular patterns in the out of focus areas, the more pleasing it is to the eye. Bokeh is used extensively in macro and portrait photography. By controlling your depth of field very tightly, you can focus the viewer's attention to exactly what your intended subject is supposed to be.

In the picture above, my subject was the seeds and how they interconnected with each other making long chains. Because I was using a macro lens with excellent bokeh, I was able to use some of the same seed branches as the background. The further away that the seeds were from my focal plane (the relative distance to the camera from where I focused), the more fuzzy they got. Eventually, they fuzzed out so much that they became a just a color and part of the background. I didn't need a backdrop of any kind, just a really tight depth of field and putting the colors that I wanted in the background.

A simple explanation of how to control your depth of field. DOF is computed by the focal length the lens is at, the distance you are from your focal point, and how large the aperture is (ie. the smaller the number, the less DOF). Generally speaking, the longer your focal length, the less DOF you have. The farther your focal point is, the larger your DOF. The larger your aperture, the smaller your DOF. In more layman's terms, wide angle lenses have a greater depth of field because you are generally wanting everything in focus with your wide angle view. For telephoto lenses, you can get pretty good blur except that the distances you are usually focusing on are much farther. But it is really the macro lenses where this is the most useful. A combination of larger focal lengths and very close focusing distances and a very large aperture gives you a very tight DOF. Combined with the way that the manufacturer generally builds these lenses, you get really nice circular bokeh.

One Lamp, Two Mirrors

I love reflections. Reflections from wall mirrors, car side view mirrors, mirrored sunglasses, still water, windows, etc all can become miniature frames within your photo. A frame within a frame, I like to say. Reflections can give you many effects, like multiplication, division, insights, different viewpoints, reversals, and distortion. For example, in this photo there is only 1 lamp. There are two mirrors on the wall joined at the corner. With the mirrors, it gave me 3 lamps total and a line leading up to the ceiling to 4 lights. The 4th light is actually a new reflection from the light shining off the ceiling. Add to that the molding that joined at the corner mirrored and reversed in different directions to itself, but at the same time looking like it was a continuation of its partner, and you get a strange X pattern. All this from 2 mirrors.

When photographing reflections, it is important to move around a lot. Change your angle of view (horizontally, vertically, and diagonally). Change your focal length and either widen or narrow your framing. Don't try to include as many objects as you can in the reflection. Pick something you want reflected and get only that in the picture. The mind's eye will draw the rest of it out.

New Orleans Square, Disneyland, California

This guy made for a great picture. The way he dressed, his happy expression, the texture of his face, and what he was doing really came together as a dramatic photo. To get the length of the guitar in the photo plus the upper body of the subject (who was at a perpendicular angle to the guitar), I used the longest lengths of the frame. Often times, people will just use a wide angle lens and use the curvature of the lens to get more into the photo. While this works, it also distorts the image greatly. Things in the distance will appear much smaller. Objects on the edges of the frames will bend because of the curve of the lens. You lose things like straight lines. The longest lengths of the frame are the diagonal corners. So, from top left to bottom right and top right to bottom left. I lined up the guitar to be at one corner and the man's head at another corner. This also helps to create a triangle using the right side of the frame. The viewer's mind will get a sense of stability from the triangles it perceived from the man's hand to face to guitar head and from the man's head to the guitar to the right side of the frame. But the diagonal lines drawn from the man's bodyline and the guitar's bodyline create a sense of excitement.

MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas

This interesting, rotating art display was hanging over the circular bar in the MGM Grand Hotel. Each vertical line was straight when looked at head on. But when they rotated to 90 degrees from you, you could see that they were actually outwardly curved. The lighting of the place actually lent itself very well to putting borders at the top and bottom of the display. Keep in mind, this display was about 25' high and at least 15' off the ground.

To me, the vertical lines gave a very bold feel to the photo. Throw in the gentle curves of the display as well as the gentle curve of the upper border, and it adds beauty to the boldness. They had lights shining on the exhibit, creating shadows and interesting light patterns on the columns. Shadows and highlights add texture and depth to a photo. Pictures are a 2 dimensional media form. The way you draw depth are diagonal lines (either explicit or perceived), shadows, or blur. In this photo, there are shadows (from the lights on the exhibit) and diagonal lines (from the varying heights of the structure).