Gathering Bokeh

A few months back Sarah-Ji shed some light on the meaning of the background and technique of bokeh. Back then, I was infatuated with the idea and the look of ‘beautiful bokeh’ and loved that it would just magically appear in a photograph I captured now and again. It was always a nice surprise to be met with lovely soft spheres in the background of my image, sometimes solitary, sometimes in a chorus or sometimes coming from a mix of light and water in mystifying sunspot like shapes. I am partial to and speaking of the lovely little ‘balls’ of bokeh (as opposed to the smooth and silky, non circular kind) just to clarify for this post.

If you have been reading this blog since it’s incarnation, you probably know by now that I am smitten by surprises like these and love to stumble upon beauty by happenstance. In other words, I subscribe to the notion of photographic magic and happy accidents and I am pretty content living and shooting in that state of mind when I can get away with it. However, my appreciation and admiration of Bokeh slowly grew into a kind of obsession. A healthy obsession, but an obsession none the less. I quickly became what one might consider a bokeh stalker. I began to notice when it was showing up in my photos and paying more attention to what I was doing at the time of the capture in hopes to better understand it and to be able to eventually, consistently recreate it. If certain photographic details don’t pique my curiosity enough to want to try to crack the code on them, I just enjoy them when they do decide to show up. You know, that magic thing again—kinda like the whole thing is out of my control. In the case of pretty, petite-planetary bokeh, I felt driven to figure out how to find it and how to gather it up in my images. I liken it to learning to catch fireflies in a jar which, by the way my girls and I learned to do for the first time over the summer. So fun!

As I began to recognize what time of day the natural light bokeh was most likely to be bountiful and easy to access (in the early morning and late afternoon light) and how the light could become dappled enough to create the celestial circles (filtered through bushes or tree leaves) I began to then play with it’s size. The aperture you are set at, will affect the circumference of the circles (i.e. the size of the opening of the aperture will either bring that light into focus or will throw that light out of focus. The more out of focus the light speckles are, the larger your bokeh circle. So, I got that down but it still wasn’t enough. I had to take it a step further. See what I mean about obsession?

I had to find a way to collect the light in such a way that I could place the circles right where I wanted them. Imagine being able to find the bokeh when you want it and then actually control where the shapes end up? Oh I know, it seems all too calculated for a self-proclaimed intuition photographer like myself but the results are intoxicating and the experimentation is addicting.

Finding the filtered light and shooting at the aperture that gives me the results I desire is not the part that is compelling for me. That stuff is just a trial and error; a practice makes much closer to perfect thing. It’s in the careful placement of the shapes that my truest artist comes out to play.

As we learn to fine tune the way we see our subjects, pay attention to the background of our shots, fill in the negative space with glittering, sparkling, dancing light, we begin to actually write the poetry of own photographic work. As if almost beckoning us, bokeh is happy to oblige, and allows us to surely and steadily harness it’s magic.

What images can you share that unveil the mysteries of bokeh? Any tips or tricks to your process? Is it a science to you or more the coincidence of the click? Beauty is beauty no matter how we capture it. I cannot wait to see what you and your bokeh have created together.

home away from home

The other day I had the privilege of working with the fabulous Romi Lassally of True Mom Confessions fame. A handful of moms (myself included) were there participating in a project she’s working on in conjunction with the release of her book and her new website—go Romi—but beyond that I had my camera by my side capturing the ins and outs of the day.

I have become a seasoned story teller of my own everyday life but stepping out of mine and into someone else’s life was enlightening. A couch found friends chatting amongst themselves, yet these friends were new faces to me. A fruit bowl on the dining room table filled with oranges, not apples. A chalk board for family memos, instead of the bulletin board I use everyday. Although it was all new and different it was so familiar and everything around me felt worthy to photograph.

As a portrait photographer I have been invited into people homes on a great many occasions. Arriving at a scheduled time I am met by families who have been harried and hurried to get prepared for my visit; everyone dressed and ready for ‘the portrait”. It is after all, the reason for my visit. And so we get right to it and spend our time together making that happen. Rarely do I get the chance to notice the fruit bowl.

I felt a sacredness being in a home as merely an observer; an outsider looking in. Watching and noticing all the details that make a home and being given the opportunity to capture what I saw through my lens. It was an honor to be there.

What details of your home beg to be seen? What are you compelled to capture under your own roof? Or perhaps there is a view or vignette of someone else’s home you covet? You are encouraged to share images from your own home discoveries.

Exploring the Details

I do not travel to follow itineraries. I travel to see whatever I happen to see. All it takes is a willingness to wander, to make mistakes, to ask for help, to observe, to follow my instincts, to face fears and step outside my comfort zone. -Ordinary Sparkling Moments

Whenever anyone asks me what I do for a living, I always smile and say, “I am an artist”. Questions then follow about the kind of work I do and what inspires me, and while all of these exchanges are among the most pleasant for me (I mean really, I get to say I’m an artist...an artist!) I have lately been wondering if I should toss all formalities aside and try to express the more fundamental truth of what I do. More than being an artist, a writer or anything else, I am a wanderer, a dreamer, and an explorer. Whether I am on a journey across the Pacific or sitting in my studio pondering my place in the world, my fierce passion for explorations of any kind is what feeds my creative work more than anything else, and it is the tiniest of details in these wanderings that give me the deepest sense of delight.

I have been incredibly blessed to have traveled to many beautiful parts of the world, and on every excursion, there are two items that are always with me: my journal and my camera. I have been known to write journal entries as I’m walking down cracked sidewalks in Havana and as a woman obsessed with graffiti art in Buenos Aires. I am constantly writing, sketching, photographing and observing, trying to capture all the minutiae of new cities, unfamiliar neighborhoods and foreign cultures. Then when I arrive back home, notes, images and doodles in hand, I let all these bits and pieces spill forth so that I can re-assemble them in an entirely new way. I use my photography to express all the subtleties I saw, sensed and experienced in places where I could not understand the language yet still perhaps felt strangely at home.

To allow yourself to dive deep into the tiniest of details in any environment is to open yourself up to colors, images and textures that might go unnoticed if you’re always looking up at the skyscrapers, so to speak. There is so much to see and admire on the ground, in a drugstore window, in the layers of paint on an old building. I find that the more I let my eyes stay focused on one small area, the more I comprehend the real flavor of a city and a culture. In Tokyo, the artful details of their manhole covers helped me understand their appreciation for beauty. In Havana, the peeled paint, broken windows and piles of rubble let any visitor know this was a city lost in time. In Buenos Aires, the political nature of their graffiti gave me a glimpse of the tension still deeply felt by a city with a dark, complicated past. The personality, history and passions of any city, town or neighborhood can be found in its details, by looking in the most minuscule of spaces and letting that take up your entire field of vision.

You don’t need to travel across the globe to explore life’s details. This is a technique you can use anywhere, anytime, even in your own home. What if you took an afternoon to explore the details of your home with your camera? What would those images say about you, your family, your routines, your likes and dislikes? Giving time and attention to the smaller corners of your own living space with your camera can help hone the muscle that notices tiny sparkles in unexpected places. Then you can use those skills to capture all the peculiar, radiant, mysterious charms of any location, near or far, at any time of the year in any part of the world.

Take your time. Observe. Look closer. Let yourself get lost in the details.

Photo and guest post courtesy of artist extraordinaire Christine Mason Miller (aka Swirly Girl). Christine has graciously offered a copy of her book Ordinary Sparkling Moments to one lucky reader. If you want in on the action leave a comment here to be included in the drawing. 

Congratulations to Bridge of Ride the Waves of Life the winner of the wonderful offerings from Jen Lemen.

the beauty of food

Food. We all interact with it every day. It fills and nourishes our bodies and (usually!) tastes good.

But beyond fuel and taste, food has a powerful aesthetic that, over the past few years, I’ve come to appreciate. Food is beautiful. I’ll admit, before I had a food blog I didn’t think much about how food looked. Sure, once in a while I noticed that something I was eating was beautiful. But that usually happened at a fancy restaurant, when the edibles were dressed to the nines.

Taking photos of food day in and day out has helped me develop an appreciation for the inherent, natural beauty of food. Chopping brown onions makes me happy, despite the tears. A bowl of blueberries stops me in my tracks. And pastries lining the windows of Paris? Ooo la la!

As I’ve contemplated my experience photographing food, I’ve realized it’s had an impact on all of my photography. I now look at life through a macro lens. To capture the essence of the food I photograph, I have to really focus on the details. This focus has expanded to other photos I take, no matter the subject. Portraits of my kids tend to be close-ups. I naturally gravitate to details, a candle rather than the whole cathedral. I see the world in a different way, with a smaller yet somehow larger perspective. Yes, I need to remind myself occasionally to step back and take in the whole picture, but I like this new view of the world that my daily photographic study of food has inspired.

Does the aesthetic of food inspire you? Do you like to capture the smallest of details with your lens?

 Pictures and words courtesy of Honorary Sister/Guest Blogger Jane Maynard of  This Week for Dinner.

street photography

Lately I’ve gotten a bit tired of shooting with my Polaroid cameras, and what I usually do when this happens (quite often!) is that I try and learn something new about photography: portrait, medium formats, photojournalism, documentary and even sport photography. Exploring different genres and formats not only allows me to widen my perspective on life, but it also helps me experiment, discover what I like, what I don’t like, and eventually expand my understanding of my own creativity.

This is how my interest in street photography has grown into an abounding source of inspiration.

"Street photography often tends to be ironic and can be distanced from its subject matter and often concentrates on a single human moment, caught at a decisive or poignant moment. On the other hand, much street photography takes the opposite approach and provides a very literal and extremely personal rendering of the subject matter, giving the audience a more visceral experience of walks of life they might only be passingly familiar with."

A moment, a conversation, a gesture. Beauty, excentricity, simplicity. Joy, sadness, boredom. Small, big, exuberant or discreet.

My friend Jolayne is very good at blending in the scene as if she belongs there and taking photos while walking down a scanty street and the rain is pouring down. Even with her mittens on. I love how she sees something that catches her attention and is able to spontaneously take a picture of it. I am more self-conscious. I am very shy. I hide in the crowd of tourists, I turn off most of the "bip-bip" sounds of my camera and unashamedly take my kids with me as a solid alibi.

Street photographer Markus Hartel writes "just be yourself and act naturally, don’t be sneaky or overly “in your face” and everything will work itself out with practice. Let the camera be an extension, a part of yourself as opposed to the intrusive instrument it can be".

Have you tried street photography? What do you like about it? Share your photos, and share your tips! If you’ve never tried it before, grab your camera, walk around in your neighborhood and see what happens.

Some of my favorite street photography links:
Myla Kent
Ying Tang
The hardcore street photography Flickr group