Bokeh

I learned a new word today!  "Bokeh."

"In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image..."  (According to Wikipedia.)

Apparently, I've been using this technique for awhile now...

"World Traveler"

I prooobably should have blogged before now about how my good friend Caroline is getting married and about how that meant a trip to London for me.  And how Caroline got her work schedule after I booked my flights and she ended up having to work the first few days I would be here in the UK.  Caroline works for British Airways so that meant she would actually be out of the country.  So then I should have blogged about how that meant a trip for me to Scotland to visit my friend Cat.

Oh well.  I'm horrible at blogging.  What else is new?

So...I'm in the UK!

A few (and very rambly) quick thoughts about my trip:
No body scan!  The airport in DC was super quiet.  It was really peaceful.  I used the bathroom on a plane for the first time today.  Twice.  And it wasn't nearly as horrible as I thought it would be.  It wasn't even gross.  As long as I don't think about all the germs.  Still.  They make my skin crawl.  Not thinking about them.  It wasn't even gross.  Also, I really liked the way the soap smelled.  In an effort to adjust to the time zone I'm in now, I tried really really hard not to sleep on the plane.  It was difficult because I might have gone to bed after 2am Friday night/Saturday morning...  I might have gone to bed at 2:25 in the morning.  And then my alarm to get up might have gone off at 6am.  Maybe.  I did end up sleeping a little because traveling makes me sleepy.  Cars, trains, and planes.  (Oh, my!)  All of them do it.  Anyway, I think I did pretty well for myself.  I didn't even watch a movie!  For the majority of the flight, the buttons on my armrest control thing didn't work but it was okay.  The guy I reported it to was convinced I would get bored and need to watch a "film."  (I'm pretty sure most of the flight crew were from England.  When I said I used the bathroom earlier, I should have said the "loo" because they called it that.  So I can call it that too without sounding like I'm just trying to be cool.  I used the loo on on a plane for the first time today.  Twice.)  I spent most of my time looking out of the window and daydreaming.  There wasn't really anything to look but I'm really good at doing nothing.  I did play on my iPod some.  And there was apple juice.  Heathrow airport has fancy bathrooms.  And it is also huge.  It goes on forever.  And ever.

Okay, enough rambling.  Maybe.

Caroline's mom and dad and youngest sister picked me up at the airport and then her sister kept me company  reeeally early this morning on my way to catch a bus to get to Gatwick airport. We had a really lovely conversation along the way.  =)   I got on another plane and Cat picked me up at the airport in Edinburgh and we got lunch and hiked a small mountain that these crazy Scots call a hill.   Now she is making a traditional roast dinner for us and our friend Fiona and their friend.

So far, so good for this traveler.  =)

If you made it through this entire post then you get a gold star.  An invisible one.  To put on your invisible sticker pad.  =D

It's my favorite season . . .

"Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower."
    Albert Camus

Composition 101:  Combining Dead Space with the Rule of Thirds is an easy way to make a photo more dramatic and eye-catching.  Be careful not to include too much dead space--the "fill the frame" rule of thumb is still always a good idea.

Butterfly Stalking

Taking a good photo is so satisfying.  And the process of finding a good shot is so...nice.  I don't know how else to describe it!  Hmm...

I'm not always the best at focusing.  Just ask my friends.  ;)  But seriously.  I zone out, I get distracted, I go on tangents.  It's what makes me so charming.  =D  When I'm in "photography mode" it's different though.  My mind sort of slows down.

Today, I had some time to kill and I took myself on a photo safari. (Remind me to write a post about what a photo safari is one day.)  The sun was beginning to set and the lighting was really nice.  I drove by a field and pulled over.  I was going to take pictures of the flowers there, but there were all these butterflies.  So I spent the next several minutes stalking butterflies and trying to take a good shot.  (It didn't quite work out.)  Anyway, as I was following one butterfly, I had a neat thought.  Photography is like butterfly stalking.  At least, it is for me.  Walking slowly, being quiet, looking for little details.  (Okay, this was a lot cooler in my head than it is in writing.  I still wanted to share though.)  I like butterfly stalking.

These might be moths...  I never did learn to tell the difference.  Moths are cool too though.

Little Details.

Composition 101:  Don't be afraid to keep clicking.  Sometimes a shot you haven't purposefully composed will be the winning shot that day.