Good Bokeh

I thought you would be interested in checking out a number of photographs that exhibit good bokeh. Now first thing before going further, the word "Bokeh" is pronounced bo as in bone and keh as in Ken, with equal stress on either syllable. Bokeh is a Japanese word that loosely means "fuzzy", or out-of-focus areas of photographs. If you hang out with photographers long enough, you will find that they are somewhat obsessed with bokeh. Photographers have discovered that certain lens render blur in different ways.

Take the leading photo that I shot of these Mountain Blue Bells, I don't think it's possible to look at this photo and not get interested in what's going on in the out of focus areas, do you? If you really look at it, there are some interesting abstracted shapes and tones. I don't believe you can look at this photo and completely ignore all the blurry parts. I shot this photo with my Canon 50mm 1.4 lens which has buttery smooth bokeh. I contribute this to the fact the 50mm 1.4 lens has 8 aperture blades which gives it better bokeh than say-the Canon 50mm 1.8 lens which only has 5 aperture blades.

The second photo I shot of this Black Capped Chickadee, I captured with my Canon 70-200L lens which is another lens that has great bokeh. I enjoy this lens immensely with its capability of blurring distracting back-grounds, such as the tree-branch's that filled the area behind this Chickadee.

The last photo of the young fly-fisher, I captured with my 70-200L lens along the banks of the Highwood River. I felt it was important when I shot this photo, that the background of trees and river-rock were blurred to concentrate your attention on the young fly-fisher as he concentrates on learning the art of fly-fishing. So now you know what good bokeh is and remember-lens with good bokeh-rock.