Ferris wheels and Lensballs

There is something about lensballs at Ferris wheels that works really well together, the fact they're both circular helps a lot. The other factor is that at night ferris wheels light up, and that equals amazing bokeh! The image you see above is in fact upside down, and has been flipped in post processing. Otherwise the ball was placed on a wall overlooking this ferris wheel.

Photographing at blue hour

It is important with this type of photo to take the image at the correct time. Too early and the ferris wheel lights won't be on, or won't be bright enough in the photo. On the other hand photograph once it's dark, and those lights in the background will over power the photo. This photo is from the early blue hour, and as a result has a lovely turquoise sky that plays off very well against the bokeh lights.

The photographs background

The power of this photo is all about the background bokeh shapes. The way those lines from the ferris wheel direct the eye towards the ball. In terms of aperture once again the largest aperture isn't used. That because otherwise the bokeh light balls became too large in the frame, and f2.8 produced the perfect sized bokeh. The take home message here is don't assume the largest aperture is always best, experiment and see what works best.

A photography meet up

Getting this photo was the result of a meet up with some other photographers in South Korea. Jason Teale very kindly took myself and a group of around six other photographers to one of his favourite locations in the city. Of course everyone took different styles of photo, and this is the image I came back with. It's one of my more interesting lensball photos, and gained a lot of positive feedback at a recent webinar I hosted on lensball photography.