Day 20: Bokeh

This was without a doubt the most challenging theme this past week. I thought that all the Christmas lighting all over the malls would make this easy to produce. That was not the case. Then I wanted to create rain drops bokeh by sitting inside a car while it was raining (and it rained a lot this past week) while blurring out street lights or whatever lights there were. That also didn't work. 

In the end, this is what I did:

Bokeh, is simply an effect achieved by blurring out portions of a photo to emphasise the parts that are in focus. Sounds simple enough right. I've been studying other photographs and watching youtube videos on this subject and I must admit, I'm still learning. Here's a good article explaining what Bokeh is.

At this point, I don't have a camera with a sensor that can allow me to isolate the subjects, however I'll continue to work on this by placing the objects far from each other. Maybe I'll even get some Christmas lights. 

There's no point in waiting for the right conditions, do what you can with what you have. Just get started :-)

Day 17: Technology

So often when we think about technology, our thoughts are filled with computers, tablets PC's and other gadgets that generally fall under the Information Technology bracket. Technology encompasses so much and dates back millennia. In essence, technology is the knowledge, skills and tools to do something, create, solve a problem or perform a task. That's not only really broad, but shows that wherever we are, not matter how remote and rural or urban, we're surrounded by some form of technology.

Day 11: Something Blue

This challenge made me realise that apart from the sky and sea/other bodies of water, this cool primary colour of tranquility is not as abundant in nature as I once believe. That being said, It can be found in quite a number of places like for instance

Street signs.

Some doors

I don't have a lot of blue things in my house apart from these coasters I made using ceramic tiles and some abstract photo's I took.

and this DIY T-shirt scarf

Day 7: Fruit

Waking up in the morning has always been a struggle for me. I'm not one of those lucky few who can jump out of bed in auto-tuned song like a scene from Glee. I'm working on this though (the waking up bit) by adapting the art of "waking up in stages" (yup I made that up, need to come up with a better name for it).

Think about it, being woken up by a shrill is not the best way to start a day, hence the grumpy long dreadful walk to the shower. What I do is set my alarm in stages and place it where I can't reach it to hit the snooze button. What makes this work though is the alarm sound; instead of the usual loud beeps, I downloaded natural sounding notification sounds from Zedge such as birds, water and forest, then I make sure that only the last alarm is set to vibrate.  As artificial as these loops may be, I think the introduction of sound wakes me up slowly and pleasantly. It's almost like having someone open the windows and curtains while you're sleeping, eventually you are aroused. This obviously may not work for everyone and I'll admit that sometimes I reach for the snooze button anyway.

So what does all this have to do with lemons? A lot. I've recently introduced lemons to my morning ritual. I've realised that the way one starts their day is extremely important, hence the waking up alarm thing. After my morning Yoga practice, I drink warm water with lemon while taking some time to mentally prepare myself for the day. It's refreshing and relaxing. Some of the benefits of lemon water can be found on this site. I'll be honest, this doesn't happen everyday but I'm working on it. 

This kiwi fruit shot happened by pure chance. The kitchen door was open and the late afternoon sunlight streaming into the house and onto the counter got me jumping gleefully while shouting the words "natural light". I love how the kiwi fruit looks, there's just something about its texture.

Day 6: From a low angle

Day 5: From a high angle