‘Floating’ Poppy

Posted on March 11, 2021

A bit of bokeh and a judicious angle makes this orange poppy appear to be floating in mid-air.

Category: Flowers Tagged: Bokeh, CMMC, Orange, Orange poppy, Poppies

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Focus

Posted on September 10, 2019

Frank’s theme this week is ‘Focus’. We’re all supposed to try and get our images pin-sharp, apparently, but sometimes a little judicious out-of-focus or bokeh seems to make the focus stand out even more.

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Focus

Category: Composition, Flowers Tagged: Bokeh, focus, fpj-photo-challenge, leaves, Red, Tuesday Photo Challenge

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52 Weeks Photo Challenge: Week 32 – Shallow Depth of Field

Posted on May 1, 2017

To my mind, the manipulation of depth of field that is possible with a DSLR camera is one of the most creative aspects of photography. As The Girl That Dreams Awake rightly says in setting this week’s theme, it is most commonly used in macro and portrait photography.

Well, I don’t take many portraits but I do photograph a lot of flowers, where shallow depth of field is particularly effective. This close-up (as opposed to macro) image of a bud about to open was shot at ƒ2.8 – as big an aperture as it gets on that particular lens – in order to throw the background out of focus, providing some pleasing bokeh to complement the subject.

Category: Flowers Tagged: 52 Weeks, 52Weeks, Bokeh, Bud, Depth of field, Flowers, Shallow Depth of Field

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Rule of Thirds (1)

Posted on December 3, 2015

All these images place the subject in either the left or right one-third of the image and, I think, are more effective than they would be if they were simply centred. Roll over each image for further explanation.

A winged lion looks over St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Placing it to the left, looking to the right, gives a sense of the ‘protective’ role of this creature in Venetian culture

Until they were provided with a proper cradle, this is how they had to clean the windows of my old office building. The placement of the workman to the right gives an idea of the scale of the task.

A nice flowerhead in itself, but a shame to waste that bokeh.

The red stream that occupies the left two-thirds of this image adds interest to what would otherwise be a humdrum shot of a hang-glider (although it does mean he’s heading out of shot rather than into it).

My grandson getting a soaking at a water-park in Abu Dhabi. Using the rule of thirds means we also get to see where the soaking is coming from.

A nightscape, taken from the balcony of my apartment in Abu Dhabi. The streetlights provide a lead-in to the lit-up buildings on the right, providing depth which the dark conditions would otherwise obscure.

Cee’s Compose Yourself Challenge: Rule of Thirds

Category: Composition Tagged: Abu Dhabi, Bokeh, CCY, Cee's Compose Yourself Photo Challenge, Flowers, Night, Rule of thirds, Venice

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Rule of Thirds

Posted on February 22, 2015

For this week’s challenge, a photograph of some seedpods of an Honesty plant (known in France as ‘monnaie du Pape’ – The Pope’s Money). I do like a bit of bokeh.