Fargo, North Dakota.

This is being written the Sunday before Christmas Eve (December 17). We will be in Fargo for Christmas and obviously busy with family on Christmas Eve. Of course, that means a Cellpic Sunday should be holiday related. The image above is a shot of our small “Christmas Village” display. When I captured it, I was experimenting with the camera’s ability to do “selective focus”. In that mode, you can tap on the screen and the camera with “focus” on the area where you tapped. Pretty sophisticated for a cell phone, in this case, the Samsung S6.

Though it does a good job of giving the appearance of a narrow depth of field, the tree in the back is only showing the beginning effects of “bokeh”, the ability of a lens to turn points of light into small circles. The word, bokeh, is from a Japanese term, pronounced ‘bok-eh’, though some pronounce it ‘bo-kay’. My “good” cameras would probably have more fully blurred the background creating almost solid green with circles of light. Having said that, I was very pleased with the results of this cellphone shot.

Here’s wishing you all a happy holiday season, no matter what your season of joy is called.

John Steiner