Interesting Bokeh

One thing I kind of regret about not going to photography school is the creativity challenge. I don't have new techniques I need to learn. No assignments to hand in. No forced learning I guess is the best way to put it.

I believe that creativity is a muscle. It is something you have to work on. In order to grow as an artist you need to challenge yourself on a regular basis. Because I love to learn new ways to capture beautiful images I tried out a technique I was originally introduced to by Sherry Lu.

Basically, you can manipulate the bokeh of your images. You pretty much make this lens cap that has a shaped cut out of it in the middle and when you photograph something with lights in the background you get some really cool shapes. To learn more about this technique and how to do it click here.

As it is probably obvious, I love love. It sounds so cliche, I know. But in all honesty, to me love is life's purpose. Being inspired by this my shape was a heart. I really didn't think this would work. I still don't know exactly how/why it works. Since I didn't have a lot of faith in what I was doing I didn't really think of anything exciting to photograph. These are two of my favorite pieces of jewelry.

The first is a locket that my parents gave to me when I was little. I still haven't put any photos in it though. Not sure how to get them that small!

The second is a ring Matt gave me our first Christmas together. No it's not an engagement ring. Just something pretty :)