Starting with Kathy’s birthday celebration this week’s shoot out was quality all the way.
Mark and B&B’s photo op in Cemetery
and Chef E’s painting the town RED a Self portrait were both told with their usual fine humor
Sarah with her favorite topic of Faces
QMM showing us her ‘old Kentucky Home’
and finally Jama once again in the spotlight with a beautiful stop-action Water photo that could also have been captioned Classics of Childhood.
One Year in Photos
This has been published on YouTube for the public so you can pull it off and save for your own use or enjoyment.
If I missed you please send an email to me and attach a photo telling me which week and which topic it was from and I will try to add you to this slide show – otherwise just sit back and enjoy
The first annual Friday Shoot-out slide slow
back to your favorite topic or one of your most favorite topics because if you are like me - I've enjoyed many. I have a few where I took so many photos I wasn't able to post all of them so I can go back to post my left-overs. I would love to see some of the old-timers replay with us. Just go to MrLinky link and enter your URL to let us know you've come back. By the way this week will be my personal 50th post - haven't missed one all year. 
A quick look in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh says, "In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting— "good" or "bad" bokeh, respectively. Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions." I have no clue if this is an example of Bokeh – but its got blur and color which please MY eye.
Addendum from Comments:
Rebecca says, “I don't use a point and shoot but you would want to get your camera to a wide aperture - which means you either need to shoot in manual or aperture priority and select the lowest number you can for the aperture or use macro option. The lower the number the wider the aperture. Focus on something in the foreground, the further it is from the background the more out of focus the background will be. To get those circles of light, there needs to be points of light in the background such as Christmas lights, candles, water drops reflecting...etc. I have some examples on my photo blog: http://thedustycellarshoots.blogspot.com/search/label/Bokeh” and “Ginger, your photo would be an example of motion blur - you caught the movement. Bokeh is a focal blur.”
So Rebecca is this more like it? this was using a auto setting – will try your suggestion with a manual – oh, now I am nervous I never use manual settings.
Ginger V
This week we had somewhat of a quiet turnout, just as much quality just not as many, 19 compared with 25 for Aquariums and 37 for Circles. I thought this was a good topic, there are many ways of of interpreting PLAZAs, 'There are military plazas, parks with dancing ‘plazas’ (pavilions), even food courts in shopping centers could be considered a meet and greet place for the modern teenager. Here are a few of the photos that I thought represented different ways of interpreting our modern ‘plazas’. GingerV
It's an honor for me to be a host this week’s FSO.
Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. It’s the space where a large crowd gathers during public occasions or crisis. The plaza remains a center of community life that is only equaled by the market-place. In modern usage, a plaza can be any gathering place on a street or between buildings, a street intersection with a statue. It’s a center of a town/city or a certain place.
Thanks again. I am excited to see everyone's town plaza photos. Redlan ( aka - Rod Gelarde)
Photo: Plaza in Madrid, Spain – by GingerV
February 12 - Aquariums by Elizabeth
Please take a moment to look at the 'suggested topic' list on the left panel. I have entered the last topic suggestions that I received. (see z - z9) I will try to put them into a 'time' order later. Which means I will juggle them around so they don't repeat like topics to soon, one right after the other. There are some I like in particular but will try not to do my favorites first (lol!) - the ones you can count on the order are in the 'future topics' list assigned to dates through the end of February.Circles
Doughnuts, tires, plums, and spots,
Drops of water, polka dots.
Cat’s eyes, toad’s skin
Pearls and pebbles, a golden ring.
Fawn’s back, Dalmatian paw
Windows, wheels, an old buzz saw.
Traffic circles, prayer circles,
Crop circles, semicircles
Winner’s circles.
Running in circles,
Breathing in circles.
These will all do
Just fine too.
Sit in your chair and take one shot
Or go outside and take a lot.
Circles.
Have fun!
Kerry
