Last night, I mentioned to my husband while watching the holiday tree lighting downtown that I wanted to capture some bright colored bokeh. He turned to me with a smile, and said, “I like Almond Roca Bokeh!” He’s such a jokester! Now, every time I think of the word, I want to say roca bokeh!

You may be wondering, “What is bokeh, anyway?” This term comes up a lot in reference to photography, especially around the holidays because of the beautiful effects you can create with all the gorgeous Christmas lights and decorations that can be found around town.

Simply put, bokeh refers to the blurry or out-of-focus areas of a photograph. It’s especially gorgeous around highlights in the background of an image, caused by a light source (i.e. the sun) or reflections (i.e. glass). And, I like to pronounce it: bo-kuh (you know, rhymes with roca, and mocha).

Bokeh is created by using shallow depth of field. It can be used to direct focus toward your subject and off of the background, a commonly used technique in portraiture. But, it can also be used in artistic and creative ways, making bokeh the main focus of the photo, such as the one shown above.