– Coldplay

Downtown Houston – Because I love light — the harshness of light, the softness of light, the color of light, the warmth of light, the mood of light, the utility of light. In its presence and in its absence, it steals the show. It ignites the bones.

Every year I become somewhat obsessed with some new (to me) concept, software, equipment and/or technique having to do with photography. Three years ago, it was Photoshop. Two years ago, it was tripod photography and long-exposure. Last year, it was texture layers. This year, I went back to basics and proclaimed, “Let there be light!”

More accurately, let there be out-of-focus light.

Let there be bokeh!

Without getting too technical, bokeh is a spherical element in a photograph that is created by out-of-focus light. In my photo Downtown Houston, one can clearly see the bokeh in the mid-range of the image, in the same area as the bus that is whooshing by. This photo comes in at #9 because it brings a little light, a little bokeh, a little magic to an otherwise ordinary downtown street, and, in the process, it guides me to my creative happy place, my aesthetic “home.”

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Below you’ll find two additional bokeh-filled photos, for the dreamers and urban leaf, both of which would have made it into my top 20, if I had made such a list.