Playing with Bokeh

.
Bokeh | bōˈkā|
noun Photography
***
the visual quality
of the out-of-focus areas
of a photographic image.

I love bokeh, but I'm having a hard time learning how to achieve it. I've read lots of articles, but like so many things photographic, I'm finding it tough to put what I read into practice.

One thing I do know, you want your aperture set as wide open as possible. This insures that parts of your picture are in sharp focus while the background is blurred.

It sounds so simple . . .

Out of approximately one hundred twenty tries today,
I came up with three.

Not my best work.

I seem to have better luck
when shooting objects that are far away.
These are the lights
on our little outdoor Christmas tree.
I was about twenty feet away.
Poor composition, but that wasn't the point.

Here, I was actually trying
to get the lights in focus,
with a blurred green background.
Oops!

This came out the best of all.
This is a thin strand of star tinsel
we have on our outdoor tree.

I'd really like to master this technique
while there are so many Christmas lights.

Maybe next year?

This is a totally failed attempt at bokeh.

Since living in the rig,
I've been very careful
not to add seasonal decorations,
but this little guy proved irresistible.
He's a mere two inches tall,
and I love his face.

Hope you are all having a happy!