I posted an article before about how to shape your bokehs, but I didn't really talk about basic bokeh principles.  So, what in the world is bokeh!?  The word refers to the blurring effect you get with light in your photos.  In particular, most people think of portraits where the subject is sharp and in focus, but the background highlights are blurred into sphere shape or maybe something like an octagon.  This gives a nice, appealing photo.  It can also be used creatively to get other effects like I've done in these photos.

Ok, so we aren't supposed to play with matches or fire, right?  Time to break the rules!  FYI, if you try something like this, please don't burn your house down!  This was a fun little project I wanted to try and I had a few minutes of free time this evening.  So, here goes... ...

When I took this photo, I was playing with creating bokeh shapes in the background.  Bokeh refers to the blurring of the lights in the background of this image.  I was able to shape the blurred lights into hearts using a mask of sorts over the lens.  I basically cut a heart-shaped hole out of a piece of black construction paper and placed this over the lens (shooting through the heart).  You don't even see the paper when you're shooting, but the bokeh shape is created in the background.  This is my beautiful daughter, Brooke!  :)