Perhaps bokeh is a little overdone in abstract photography but for some reason I am always drawn to it in other people’s images.

Bokeh is the shape and quality of they way a captured image blurs when a lens moves away from focus. The characteristics of what makes bokeh pleasant or ugly are driven by the makeup of the lens, the shape of the aperture and the composition of the image. As far as I know we never perceive bokeh with our own eyes. Perhaps it is there in our vision but our brains have become so programmed at removing it that it is all but impossible to see.

What ever kind of bokeh a lens creates what fascinates me is the magic of rendering the invisible into the perceivable. After that the shape, the quality and the composition can make bokeh simply beautiful.

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 629, Simply Beautiful Bokeh’ 4s f/8.0 ISO640 200mm