Beautiful Light – Beautiful Bokeh

Posted on August 31, 2009

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.
Aaron Rose

I’m taking a break from all the editing I have been doing so I can put up some pictures that I feel capture the essence of the season.  I love the sunlight, especially the way it penetrates the mundane and turns it into an extraordinary glimpse into the parts of nature we often miss.  All of the following images demonstrate what photographers refer to as “bokeh” – Essentially, bokeh is an aesthetic and qualitative measure of light distortion in the out-of-focus areas of an image.

Morning Light on Queen Ann’s Lace

What I give form to in daylight is only one per cent of what I have seen in darkness.
M. C. Escher

Like our dawn, merely a sob of light.
Victor Hugo

The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light.
Matthew Arnold

I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.  Og Mandino Quotes

Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter.   Bono

If you want it and you dream about it…there’s nothing that’s going to stop you.  Chris Witty

There will be a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.   Louis L’Amour

Children love to be alone because alone is where they know themselves, and where they dream.   Roger Rosenblatt

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tunes without the words and never stops at all.”
Emily Dickenson

The less we look with our eyes, the more we will see with our hearts.
Lyndsey Albrecht

Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.
Doug Larson

I’m not beautiful like you. I’m beautiful like me.
Joy Drop

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.  Kahil Gibran

Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.   Antonio Smith

A Field of Lupines

Posted on June 8, 2009

Utilizing available light is one of the most precious joys I find in photography.  Normally I prefer to shoot pictures during the two different “golden hour” times of day, which are early morning, just after sunrise, and evening, before the sun sets.  Yesterday, however, I was at a friend’s house in the afternoon while the sun was blazing high in the sky.  They have a magnificent field of lupines and I just couldn’t resist photographing them.  I adjusted my camera settings to ‘spot metering’ and I decided to shoot towards the sun so the lupines were back lit, creating a magical feeling with the glimmering light in the distance.

The following images are from the lupine field.  The first one I did a color treatment called Golden Vintage.  I really like the effect – very ethereal.

This next image is the original, which I also love.  The colors are more true, but I like the above image for its magical qualities.