Festive Bokeh

For the Christmas break this year I’ve hired some photography kit to play about with whilst I’m off work. Amongst the few bits and bobs (and you’ll find out about the others in due course) is the Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM, which is a bit of an upgrade for my Nifty Fifty that I’ve been keen on trying out.

I’ve taken a handful of shots with it already, but the ones it seems most fitting to share here on Christmas Eve are these deliberately out-of-focus shots of our Christmas tree. The 50mm f/1.4 has full-time manual focussing so I simply set the aperture as big as it would go, pointed and metered the camera at a place where there seemed to be a nice assortment of colours, then threw the lens as out-of-focus as I could before taking the picture. The results are a nice assortment that’s managed to capture most of the gamut of festive colours including reds, greens, whites and oranges. Since we only have white lights on our trees the rest of the colour comes from light reflecting off baubles and tinsel. I hope you enjoy!

On behalf of my family, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I’m off to participate in our traditional Christmas Eve viewing of The Muppet Christmas Carol which, if you’re keeping score at home, is the best Christmas film of them all.

Take care,
Rob