Foto Friday 12 – [boke]
xmas bokeh fun
What’s bokeh? How do you even pronounce that? Glad you ask.
BOOKAY? No, no. BOKEH! MKAY? KK. But wait. What is it this BOKEH1? It’s delicious circles of light in the out-of-focus area of an image. The quality of the bokeh depends on the quality of the lens (bad bokeh is… well, bad). Needless to say, my EF35mm f/1.4L USM has superb bokeh. I love it. It’s supercalfragilisticexpialidocious. Sometimes, I go bokeh hunting. And what better time than during Christmas? Bokehmania!
At an aperture of f/1.4, the dof (depth-of-field2) is so shallow, resulting in a miniscule focal plane here. Focus? You say there is no focus? Your eyes hurt? It’s all blurry? No, it’s not. Look closely at the rail. Razor-thin focus, all the more bokeh!
Notice the difference between image one and image two: The dof is more shallow in the second image, whereas we have more defined shapes in the first one, and the sign there is completely in focus, thanks to the 2.8 aperture. Phew!
I like the idea of the missing Santa. There’s a story there. Santa has to eat, but it’s a mall… where could he go? Would the kids let him eat in peace? Maybe he’s hiding somewhere down the corridor to the parking lot, no, he’s eating in his Deluxe Santa Cruiser! Or maybe he’s a Bad Santa3 and went to get something to take the edge off. Billy Bob Thornton as Santa. Sold.
Speaking of Bad Santa movies. Maybe you want to watch the 2015 comedy Krampus,4 switch it up a bit this year? There may be bokeh in it, probably, most likely.
So what about ALL Bokeh and NO focus? How? Why? Stop the madness!
Too much eggnog? Vision blurred? What’s this giant glowing thing? Why... it's the Face of Christmas!
Are you driving home for Christmas? Before you get into your car, make sure the blurry vision has subsided. Drive safe!
We have come to the end of this twelfth issue of Foto Friday and I regret to announce that this will be the last one. For this year. Even though there are a few more Fridays I decided to focus on CARTER Part 2 & 3 and SPHEREAN for December. Come 2024 I will switch FF over to a monthly cycle on the first Friday of each month. 12 issues. The format may change slightly, too. Open to suggestions here. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Want to see more of this or that, less of the other thing?
Also, as mentioned in earlier posts, I’ll send out epub and audiobook versions of CARTER (Part 1) and the Flash Fiction Collection (12 stories) to Paid Subscribers in the last week of December. Keep an eye out for that!
I hope you enjoyed this mini excursion into bokehmania and may the good bokeh be with you.
Feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post and share it with a friend so more people can discover it on Substack. 🙏
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307987/reference/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3850590/reference/
Wow! I love that there’s a word for that! 😀
Have there really already been 12?? How time flies.
Like Daniel, I now know what bokeh is. And I like it. Very impressive and festive indeed. I had to hunt for that rail for a moment in the second image. 👏
Glorious.