Bouquet of bokeh

December 7, 2014December 15, 2014 / mikeosbornphoto / 38 Comments

The Japanese word bokeh is defined as “the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens”.

It truly comes to life when you play with light. The December nights in London start early and last a long time. In the urban area of Shepherds Bush, the darkness is punctuated by streams of traffic, street lights – and twinkling Christmas decorations.

I prowled the streets with my macro lens, fooled into focusing on nearby surfaces to attain abstraction and capture a stream of bokeh on a winter’s evening.

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Refraction

November 22, 2014 / mikeosbornphoto / 11 Comments

$Refraction I$ $Refraction II$

$Refraction III$ $Refraction IV$

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These four frames of multi-coloured light came about through a moment of almost inconsequential observation, on an ordinary morning.

I was in one of the bedrooms at my mother’s house in Essex, eastern England, and caught sight of a patch of light on the wall. It was like a rainbow had collapsed onto a flat surface.

It took some time to discover the source of this prism – in another bedroom across the hallway, strong sunlight had caught a silver photograph frame and was throwing its refraction many metres into this mesmerising fallen arc of colour.

I took some shots of this as it changed form and threatened to disappear altogether. Back in London, I simply softened the frames to remove the texture of the wall, which blended the stripes of red, orange, indigo, violet, green and blue.

Just a small moment of colour caught for good…

11.11.14

November 16, 2014 / mikeosbornphoto / 30 Comments

Daybreak, 100 years after the end of World War One. I went to the Tower of London, expecting few people to be there. But the area was packed with people.

They had come to glimpse at a spectacle which has captured imaginations. The moat of this famous landmark has been gradually filled with a sea of ceramic poppies – 888,246 to be precise. Each represents a British military fatality during the 1914-18 conflict.

On this chilly early morning, viewers were taking in the sight and almost universally taking snapshots. More than five million visitors later, this has been photographed from practically every angle. I found myself drawn to the people gazing at the mass of scarlet and the occasional tributes to fallen veterans.

As the removal of the poppies begins, I wonder whether visitors came to glimpse a landmark art installation or really did treat it as an act of remembrance. Either way, this has made a deep and lasting impact.

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Island daydreaming

October 31, 2014July 30, 2019 / mikeosbornphoto / 6 Comments

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The hotel poolside on holiday is for swimming, sunbathing, relaxing, reading… showing off and trying to cover up. I become restless and like to experiment with my camera.

This trio of frames capture the colours and textures of the pool and beyond – the first image rolls the layers of sky, sea, beach and pool’s edge into one. I used my macro lens and fooled it into creating the abstract, hazy sense of relaxing by the water’s edge.

They are an homage to photographic artist Mariko Evans, whose enduring trademark is the dreamy, artful frame.

The art of rain

September 14, 2014 / mikeosbornphoto / 15 Comments

An entire day of torrential rain ruins a photographer’s day out. This is the time to stay indoors and try to be creative with what you have. Water – plenty of it – running off balconies, roof windows and refracting the colours behind it. Usual everyday surroundings take on a different air, and the camera finds abstraction.

When the time comes to edit your shots, you can splash a little more colour there and create new landscapes. Here are the fruits of my rainy day play…