Your Japanese word of the week is...

"bokeru" which means "to blur/fade". It can be used in two ways, one being the actual blurring of something (like an image) and the other being someone who's senile or otherwise got a fuzzy mind. You can also use it in a derogatory way by calling someone a "boke" (not bohk, but bo-keh).

This word entered the photography world for a similar reason and so "bokeh" describes the blurring of an image's foreground or background with certain camera lenses. It's actually rather complicated to explain why it happens (it has to do with the aperture of the lens and depth of field) but it essentially allows the photographer to blur all the things in front or behind of the object in focus in order to minimize their distraction. It's something I've always noticed in pictures but never knew the name for or how to achieve.

I should note that I bring all this up since I've decided, since I don't currently have a car to waste all my money on, to take up photography. It started in July when I basically played photographer for two weeks to help with Seiritsu's Japan Experience! program. After that, a few weeks ago, at the Tokyo Automotive Games show, I realized I wasn't getting the pictures I wanted.

So, after nearly an entire week of constantly reading camera reviews, learning the terminology, and dissecting the physics behind light, I found a nice guy on Tokyo Craigslist to sell me his DSLR stuff. It was a fairly decent deal including a 6-month old Sony α300, a 16gb CF card, a Lowepro bag, and a mid-telephoto in the shape of a Minolta 70-210mm, affectionately known as the "Beercan". All for cheaper than the cost of a new camera.

Some might scoff at the fact that it's not a Canon or a Nikon, but for now, I'm quite sure I can't tell the difference. I can, however, tell a difference in price...

Anyways, back to the bokeh...

I suppose it's a bit hard to see in a small picture (I resized it for the sake of the internet), but the bike and the tree in the foreground are conveniently blurred to (hopefully) draw the viewer's eyes to the Honda logo.

Of course, pictures aren't pictures without post-processing and I suppose at some point I should learn all of it. But for now, I just shoot JPEG's and see where it goes. Black and white seems to be popular though, and that's easy enough to do......

Anyways, I took these two pics just a few hours ago when I went to a nearby park to take random pictures. I took a lot and many didn't turn out, but what with Christmas lights strewn all over Tokyo, travel plans to Kyoto, the Tokyo Auto Salon, a trip to Hong Kong, and blasting across Japan on the the Bullet Train all coming in the first half of 2009, I'm sure I'll have more chances to really sort it out.

Oh also, this past Sunday I went to the 36th Japan Cup Karatedo, which is essentially the highest level national karate competition in Japan. Special thanks to Anna for holding my program for me =P.......

Double thanks to her catching this picture...

"Use the Force, Luke" =P....