I shot this with a wide open aperture to get the selective focus and the “impressionistic painting” effect, as some have called it. The term for the blurred background in such a photo is bokeh, from the Japanese word for blur or haze. It is a photo of a tree fern, taken near Lake Tarawera in New Zealand. I was spending a week in a cottage there alone with God and had a very significant time which jump-started my relationship with him. I titled the photo “New Beginnings” partly because of that, but also because the spiral shape of the tree fern—”koru” in the NZ native Maori language—symbolizes rebirth or new beginnings in Maori spirituality. This is my all-time favorite photo thus far. It is a limited edition print with only three more signed, framed (16″x20″) copies available.
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