blind camera bokeh

The screen on my camera went from unreliable to only working once in a blue moon very fast. This means that if I want to photograph something I need to line things up very carefully. Or just, you know, shove the camera right up against it:

   

One dim rain-freckled evening this left me straying obliviously into the realm of bokeh, of narrow bands of focus surrounded by accidental but nevertheless pleasurable blur. The fluffy sprigs of Fennel shoots and Nigella buds seemed to take very naturally to this, though my Francisca Primula were too pretty not to join the party.



   

The Service Bush continues to gather its drops of water as the berries develop; the pansies are brave in the face of slug onslaught, and my Big Sunny tulips (I cannot recommend these enough, they are beautiful) are starting to look under the weather, but still, as is the way with tulips, are fabulous even while dying.



   

Without the viewscreen, aiming returns to a matter of guesswork and rules of thumb. Subjects lurch up, down; to the side, and those broad expanses of blurred background, the hallmark of the bokeh style, are suddenly more visible, the background foregrounded. I often find (looking back at my photographs) that the hint of background is where the action really is. Look; I had Fuchsia and Petunia hardening off in the greenhouse that day; and I was wearing my brown tropical print shoes...