Bokeh

Continuing with the photography theme of my previous post, I thought I'd add a bit of relevant Japanese language information!

Many people may have heard the term "bokeh" used in photography. Bokeh is explained to be the quality of things which are out of focus in a photograph.

View of UH, by me, 2011- Pretty glittery bokeh spots on the window!

This term has become most notorious in recent years by those pretty little circles you get from Christmas lights, or shimmering glitter!

Jellybean dispenser, by me, 2012 - Christmas tree bokeh!

So, on to the language part! Boke (暈け) is actually a Japanese term which means blur, haze, or confusion. If you want to go a bit deeper, bokeru (暈ける) is an ichidan (class 2) verb with a similar meaning. In English spelling, the "h" has been added to the end to prevent people from pronouncing it like "poke." I'm not entirely sure why we have adopted the Japanese word for this, but I always love finding out origins of words that we use in English!

Introduction & Natsumi Hayashi

Hey, guys! This blog will focus mainly on art/artists of Japan, with some entertaining snip-its of culture and language, too! I love to include language information with my posts. I will try to update this more than once a week if I have time. I have a list of favourite artists that I've accumulated over time, so I have plenty to talk about here!

I noticed that many people in our class wanted to hear about photography, so I thought I'd start off my blog with a photographer. Today's post will be about the photographer Natsumi Hayashi. (林ナツミ）

Image courtesy of yowayowacamera.com

Natsumi Hayashi is a Japanese photographer based out of Tokyo who is most known for her "levitation" self-portraits. In many of her photos, she seems to be flying or floating weightlessly in place while doing everyday activities. 

Image courtesy of yowayowacamera.com

The images are not altered to give this appearance. She does this by setting up a tripod and self-timer, and jumping repeatedly until she gets the right shot. More information on how she does it and what equipment she uses can be found on her website in both English and Japanese.

Image courtesy of yowayowacamera.com

You can follow Ms. Hayashi on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter (her most updated/frequently used site being Twitter).