Blue Light Special

Do you remember the "blue light specials" at K-Mart? When I was about 16 I was in a K-Mart in the big city. I must have been bored or tired or something because I leaned against one of their portable blue light machines. Somehow, I bumped the on switch....the blue light started flashing and people came scurrying over to see what the special was. I ducked behind some rack of clothes and snuck out of there. But guess what...this post isn't about the blue light special at all. It's about blue lights. Ha.

There is a restaurant nearby that has the coolest blue lights on the trees and bushes that surround it. I thought it would be fun to get some pictures of them. A big part of my decision to take a photo a day is to learn more about my camera. It's to take it off of automatic and switch to manual settings. It can make a huge difference.
The photo above is set on automatic. The one below semi-manual where I controlled the shutter speed. I know which one I like better!

The next three are just playing with the shutter speed and the aperture. The shutter speed gets the exposure just right and the aperture controls the size of the opening in the lens.

Too much information? That's OK...just look at the pretty blue lights. The out of focus lights in the background is called a bokeh effect. It comes from a Japanese word meaning "blurred or fuzzy". I just think it looks cool.

I like to take pictures from different angles and also like to take close-ups.

The picture below shows more of what the scene really looked like.

But I like to try and see things differently. To focus on the details. I like to get right up in there and take pictures of just the parts. Because seeing just the parts can change the whole picture. And sometimes that's a good thing.

It's all about focus baby! :-) The end.