An aesthetic background makes your subject stand-out and  makes your image all the more appealing. Three things that can help you create bokeh :

• use a telephoto lens or a macro lens
• open up the lens (use a low f-stop – f5.6 or less)
• get as close to your subject as possible – the depth of field is reduced the closer you are to your subject
• make sure the background is as far behind your subject as possible

Here I used a 60 mm macro lens and was no more than 20 cm from the subject. The background was a good 5 metres behind the subject. The aperture was set at f 5.6.

Click here to see some more examples

Check out this “Bokeh Challenge“

This sketch was done using HB and 2B pencils from a watercolour painting. You have to look a lot closer when drawing than when taking photographs – you are obliged to notice differences in tone.

I took 3 shots at different exposures with my Canon G9 – combined them and got the above result. This is actually closer to what your eyes see than any single shot can be. The dynamic range of a digital camera is 5 stops – the dynamic range of the image is about 7 stops (the human eye is about 9).

Read article : “HDR is the best way to reproduce the original high contrast scene”

Another place at another time but reminiscent of “Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry” particularly of the Chateau of Saumur scene.

The Alhambra (from al-Hamra – “the red one”) seen from the Palacio de Generalife.

Lions once roamed much of the African continent, but recent studies suggest that lion populations may have decreased nearly 90% in just one decade, with fewer than 20,000 remaining in just a handful of countries. In the meantime, the human population has just reached 7 billion!