A couple of years ago, I ran across a word related to photography that I had never heard before. The word is bokeh.
Wikipedia says: “In photography, bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens …”
That phrase was about the only part of the article that I understood. Later I stumbled upon a photography site called Dreamstime. Their blog had an article explaining how to photograph a bokeh properly. I am not sure whether I understood more or less after reading the blog. The English in the article was rather broken, so apologies to any members of the grammar police.
I won’t write here about usual bokeh without the main object in focus. And I won’t write about simple blurs that everyone can make at anytime. No one wants to have a portfolio with thousands of such images with a few sells, right?
I want to write about three related ways of getting beautiful images with bokeh.
The first is bokeh you have to look for in nature. As there are some circumstances like back-lit light, interesting object and creative composition.
The second and my favorite is – accidental and surprising bokeh. Well this way of bokeh is closely related with the first one. That is because you must know how the bokeh can show up in it’s most beautiful cases and try try try. I always shoot my bokeh images in raw files, use manual lens and manual mode of my camera. I shoot many images and have a great time at home to see the result. That is surprising way because the exposure, contrast and colors are changing and the lens flare of sun makes it unpredictable.
And the third way is planning bokeh images, that can be made in a studio. You can use different lights to lit the object and some lights for the bokeh as well.
A bokeh is a blur. Sometimes it makes a picture look cool. In the future, when you look up the word “bokeh” in a dictionary, it will say, “see also The Year 2020.” The COVID pandemic has been an accidental bokeh, hasn’t it? Everything else in the picture of this year becomes out of focus and a blur. The only thing that we will see and remember – the only thing that really happened this year – was COVID.
It struck me that we spend most of our lives in a spiritual bokeh – one that is not so pretty. Certain circumstances of our lives seem to become the only thing that is actually in focus. Perhaps we are over-infatuated by a romance. It may be that unforeseen or traumatic circumstances have caused the bokeh – the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the grief of a divorce, or a pandemic that dictates each move. The circumstance causes everything else to become nothing but a blur – and that blur completely warps our perspective on any of the other objects in the picture.
Like photography, there is only one way that the spiritual bokeh becomes proper and beautiful. It is when God is the only thing in the picture of our lives that is in focus. Everything else in the picture gains its significance through its relationship to Him.
It is the only way to have life make sense. No one wants to have a life filled with thousands of blurred images and only a few sells, right?
When I was reading some Old Testament passages for Advent, I also noticed this verse in Isaiah.
King James translated from the great prophet this way: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee” (Isaiah 26:3 KJV).
Liz Curtis Higgs, popular Christian author, placed the Isaiah 26:3 passage in her “The 20 Verses You Love the Most.” Several years ago she wrote:
It’s been a hard week in Oklahoma. Tornadoes have claimed too many loved ones, demolished too many homes, torn apart too many lives. If ever we needed an encouraging word, it’s this week.
Liz, an incredible encourager, could have been writing about the year 2020, couldn’t she? If ever we needed an encouraging word, it is now.
Read the passage from Isaiah once again. This time let’s look at it from some different translations.
The Contemporary English Version (CEV) reads, The Lord gives perfect peace to those whose faith is firm.
The English Standard Version (ESV) writes, You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
The New American Standard Bible (NASB) renders, The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You.
The New International Version (NIV) records, You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
The New Living Translation (NLT) puts forth, You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
The Message (MSG) translates,
At that time, this song will be sung in the country of Judah: We have a strong city, Salvation City, built and fortified with salvation. Throw wide the gates so good and true people can enter. People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don’t quit. Depend on God and keep at it because in the Lord God you have a sure thing. Those who lived high and mighty he knocked off their high horse. He used the city built on the hill as fill for the marshes. All the exploited and outcast peoples build their lives on the reclaimed land.
Just a couple of handfuls of words, but every word a beautifully wrapped gift, tied together with the threads of a Savior, a ribbon called hope, and a bow that is properly centered and focused.
Is it just me, or does it seem there are a lot of people who have been working really hard through this pandemic to make sure we stay out of focus?
Hymn writer Helen Lemmel put it this way: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
A bokeh worth singing about.
Let the pandemic be the blur, you stay focused.