muse university - i heart bokeh

I love bokeh...gorgeous blurry, round, magical bokeh but with the announcement of this prompt, I knew that I wanted to do something different. I was determined to learn how to make some sweet heart-shaped bokeh.

First, I scoured the house looking for black construction paper and finally came up with a piece of brown paper. Close enough, I was in business! Using the small end of the lens hood from my 35mm 1.8, I traced a circle on the paper and cut a heart in the exact center with my husband's pocket knife. With all fingers still intact, I trimmed the circle a bit with a pair of scissors and taped it to the inside of the hood with some blue painter's tape.

With my family laughing at me for making my D90 look like a school craft project, I headed out in search of bokeh producing light. I shot the sunshine streaming through my bouganvillea arbor. I skulked around the neighborhood after dark capturing headlights, street lights, and signal lights. I punched holes in a piece of cardboard and captured the perfect heart-shaped dots that appeared when I placed it in front of a window. I even dug in the attic for our white Christmas lights and added them to our garden hedges to make more defined hearts that you see in photo above. Our neighborhood lawn crew must think that I have lost my mind.

This filter has been on my camera for several days and I am still having fun with the technique. I invite you to visit bliss and folly to see the finished filter and more photos that I took. Get out and try it, experiment with other shapes, and link-up your own photos to the Linky tool that I have provided at bliss and folly.

For my featured photo today, I selected Rose {heart bokeh} by Marie Rush. She was able to capture multi-colored shaped bokeh. She obviously hearts bokeh, too. :)

Until next time. Stay sweet and try adding some extra love to your photos this week.

♥ tammy lee of bliss and folly

Rose {heart bokeh} by marierush