This year our photo club at work is shooting pictures that we can use as a calendar.  At the end of the year we will select the best photos from each month’s assignment to create a calendar for the year 2016. I thought others might enjoy and learn from following my year long journey.

Since I am starting this blog in February I will begin with the February photo assignment, which is, “Hearts, Love and Valentines”.  The first step, of course, is to brainstorm ideas.  Here are some of my thoughts:

Idea #1:  A picture of the word love with bokeh red hearts in the background.  I could also use symbols, like a heart instead of a word.

Idea #2:   Hands holding a heart.

Idea #3:  A macro shot of Valentine Candy

Idea #4:  A couple holding hands

Idea #5:  Standard close up of hands with wedding rings, but maybe an older couple.

Idea #6:  A couple hugging, kissing, looking at each other.

Idea #7:  Hands in the shape of a heart.

I like to choose an idea that will stretch me and give me an opportunity to try something new or different, which is the whole purpose of having an assignment.  As you can tell from my picture I chose to do a picture using bokeh.

 

To create this picture I used two different shots and merged them together.  For the first shot I used traffic lights for the bokeh effect, giving me the red and yellow lights.  I used a heart shape bokeh filter over my camera lens to achieve the effect.   The second picture of the candy was shot at home with black fabric and an off camera flash for lighting.

If I were to take this picture again I would fix some of the dark spots on the candy with different lighting or with post processing.  I would also try and use Christmas lights to create the heart bokeh effect.

Now let’s see what you come up with!