365 Day Project | Day 5 | Ocala Photographer

Happy New Year, everyone! Did you stay up to see the ball drop? I actually did. It was the first time in years! What was I thinking (?) because I’m pretty tired today. Oy!

Today’s photo is dedicated to the Christmas tree that will be making it’s exit tomorrow (when kiddos are back in school!). I think that this is the only time I shot the tree this season. Is that sad? I wanted to try something with the bokeh (pro.: BOH-kay). Bokeh is best seen outside of the focal plane and is often highlighted with points of light. It describes the quality of the image not in focus. I purposefully captured the tree out of focus to emphasize the bokeh. If you’ll notice, I have altered the shape of my bokeh. Fancy me, right? I cut a shape of a heart with black card stock and placed it over my lens. The result is not perfect as my heart wasn’t exactly centered on the lens, but I think that it reads fine.

This was a fun exercise. There are many options for using this technique in client shoots. You may be seeing a little more of this down the road.

Have a great day!