Some of my examples.

DSC_5868 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_0620 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_0146 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_0198-Edit by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_3730 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_7575 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_7046 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_9438 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_0010-Edit-2 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_5413 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_2657 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_5602 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_3932 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_5655 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_7616-Edit by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_8533 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_8752 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_9648 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_0903 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_2335 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_6669 by David Hart, on Flickr

DSC_6734 by David Hart, on Flickr

This last couple of years I've been trying more close-up/macro. I’ve a lot to learn, but my most severe limitation at the moment (apart from being menu-challenged) is that my eyesight is not good enough to check the focus on the viewfinder for perfection.

I guess I never really noticed that before, with my preference for landscapes with focus set to infinity! Now with close-ups, if the camera doesn’t focus as intended, then I get disappointed. So number one this summer is to work on my focus control.

Here are four, from which I have learned a couple of things apart from the focus challenge (image 1). I think an uncluttered background is important – image 2 is too cluttered and the background is too close to the subject; image 1 would have been good in those respects. I think good isolation of the subject in relation to the background is important. Images 3 and 4 show that too, with #4 being the preferable of the two on grounds of both clutter and isolation. But I could also argue that the bokeh makes #3 the more interesting photo.

I think bokeh is a natural product of this kind of work, but so far, I just let it take care of itself, although it is going to be a product of concepts regarding composition too.