Challenge Day 20 and 21

Bokeh

Buckle in, folks.

It's a gonna be a long one.

"Bokeh is the photographing technique of aesthetically blurring the background; to exaggerate the effect of the lights shinning in the background/foreground."

So I got a photo not too long ago with a blurry background. 

Yay, bokeh!

Not so much. 

It is slightly more involved than I first thought. 

I went out with my beautiful bicycle to try to get it.

The best shot I got was this

  I was not a huge fan.

I was defeated by bokeh and was determined to get something better.

But the beautiful sun was going down and my hubs had a hungry belly.

Off to Bdubs I went as miss crabby pants.

I wanted to get this one right, darn it.

Who cares about failing the over-exposure day? not me.

But Bokeh? That's fun to say AND fun to look at.

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Let me interrupt to say that I DID make up for my something blue day.

Here is my BEAUTIFUL beach cruiser.

Wrigley got his first official ride home from the mail box in it yesterday.

While editing this post...

Hubs: Where is Wrigley's photo?

Wifey: You want me to add it?

Hubs: Well if you're gonna mention him...geesh.

We like our dog.

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So I woke up this morning and said "Bokeh, I will beat you!"

After some research I fashioned this fancy lens cover.

and this was the result..

nope.

OK. Let's do some more research then.

  I changed my lens to the "zoomier" one

and set the aperture as low as it could go.

After some playing with the settings

(all on manual of course. all manual, all the time. I didn't forget my rule!)

this is what I got

Boom, baby!

I ran up stairs to a husband in the shower.

I was jumping up and down.

"I did it! I got bokeh! I did it!"

I am an overly proud little photographer!

I think that technically the more you can see the circles, the less quality bokeh it is. But I kinda like the circles so the middle photo is mine for the day (or, er. yesterday) I'm also going to brag and say that these are not at all edited. Now ask me to do it all over again, probably wouldn't happen.

Sappy Serious Melissa will interject here: I am FASCINATED by the technical stuff and LOVE researching how to use my camera to it's full potential.This is hard work but it's something that is bringing so much more joy into my life! What a blessing that humans were created in the image of God and were given an artistic eye, and the ability to create something that will capture all of His beautiful creations! Woah.

I win!

Bokeh:0, Proud Little Photographer: 1

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Faceless Self Portrait

I think we all know by now that I am over taking photos of myself.

At first I did this

 but then I quickly realized that technically that's a face.

Oops.

So here is camera face Melissa.

Overall I'll consider today (3 in 1) a win thank you very much.