Home › #Photography › KOMOREBI AND BOKEH: JAPANESE – THE PHOTOGRAPHY LANGUAGE

KOMOREBI AND BOKEH: JAPANESE – THE PHOTOGRAPHY LANGUAGE

By on • ( 19 )

When talking about photography, English doesn’t cut it. As it turns out, Japanese does.

72-autumn-twilight-23102016_20

The Japanese have a word for everything, it seems. I just learned “komorebi.” It means “sunlight filtering through the leaves of trees,” and by extension, the natural filtering of light through anything. Like glass or curtains, for example.

75-051214-Komorebi-Sunlight_12

It’s just the word I’ve needed. I’ve been chasing that light for more than 40 years.

Bokeh is my previously learned favorite Japanese photographic term. It defines something difficult to say in English: “Bokeh means the aesthetic quality of blur in the out-of-focus areas of an image produced by a lens.”

bouquet with bokeh 10

Like this?

 

72-romantic-flowers-10162016_01Or that?

Kaity

I’m sure there’s more, but this is my vocabulary lesson for the day.

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Categories: #Photography, Light and Lights, Words

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19 replies

  1. Soul n Spirit
    11/30/2016 • 12:47

    Last one is so adorable. How is Katty doing? Excellent pictures with a Japanese twist.

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      11/30/2016 • 12:49

      She is struggling. She can’t afford college without a scholarship and she doesn’t want to go to the community colleges she CAN afford. But she’s 20 years old and had to make some decisions on her own about what kind of life she wants to live. My heart aches for her, but there’s only so much I can do. The rest really is up to her.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. swo8
    11/29/2016 • 13:30

    Lots of “OO’s” and “AHS” there Marilyn.
    Leslie

    Like

  3. Ruth
    11/29/2016 • 09:08

    Komorebi – what a great word, I love its effect and would love to seek it out now I know what it means – thanks for expanding my vocabulary 🙂 oh, and I too love the Olympus 25mm f1.8 as my favourite walkabout lens. The 45mm is excellent too 🙂

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      11/29/2016 • 11:51

      Thank you. The 45mm is a superb portrait lens. It’s just a bit too long for walking around. Sometimes, even the 25 seems a bit too long, but it has such wonderful optics, I forgive it 🙂 Have you checked out the 12-50mm macro they have on sale at Olympus for $149? It’s on sale to Dec. 3. I paid twice that and it’s a great little lens. Unique and very sharp … and a nice range, with a macro button, too. Make a good “normal.”

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Cardinal Guzman
    11/29/2016 • 02:25

    I agree: bokeh is a good word to describe bokeh. I think I read Komorebi in some article about what was missing in the English language. My son made up his own verb for ” push the chair (while I’m sitting on it) into the table”. His mom tried to stop him from using that word, but I encouraged him because I think it’s brilliant that he made up his own verb for this action.

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      11/29/2016 • 03:03

      English, as well as German and Russian, is great for technical things, but other languages are better at describing emotions. Japanese is apparently particular good at describing visual things.

      English is (probably as all modern languages) changing all the time. New words appear, old ones became archaic. Hebrew — so my son assures me — had changed so much since we left the country that he can barely understand either the accent or the idioms.

      I think inventing words is very cool 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Blesson Miracle Mathew
    11/29/2016 • 01:44

    The flower photo is really good.

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  6. Covert Novelist
    11/29/2016 • 01:22

    WOW, just WOW! Those are SPECTACULAR pictures! I love flowers! I love forests and trees. You took some absolutely incredible!!! pictures. Thank you so very much for sharing them with everyone. The first flowers, grouped, are so vibrant and alive. The young woman is lovely too. I’m touched by the beauty they invoke.

    Liked by 1 person