About Bokeh Effect Photography

Erik (left) and cLotti (right) of Bokeh Effect Photography

Bokeh Effect Photography is the joint venture of two friends who met in a college photography class and really hit it off.  We found out very quickly that we had a true passion for making images and capturing the life around us; a passion that embodies our company and us today.

While in school, we worked together on a number of projects involving fashion, modeling and event photography.   It was some of the best times of our lives.   As school past, Erik moved to Colorado for a few years to pursue a career in the IT field and cLotti became a jetsetter, flying to countries all around the world, engineering rail systems for large corporations.

Time has passed but out friendship and love for beautiful photographic art has not.   We found ourselves moving back to the Minneapolis/Western Wisconsin region with a desire to pick back up where we left off.  This is how Bokeh Effect Photography was born.

Bokeh Effect generated by shallow depth of field on a 70-200 zoom lens

“Bokeh”?

You might be asking yourself, what exactly is bokeh and why did you name your company that?

The term bokeh is derived from a Japanese noun (boke 暈け) meaning “blurred or fuzzy”.  (Wikipedia Entry) Bokeh is created in the lens by using shallow depth of field to create a beautiful background blur that helps to emphasize the main subject.  Some lenses create a soft and milky background blur while others are harsher but just as effective in honing in on your subject.

A flower surrounded by soft bokeh

An “artsy” answer for why we choose the name Bokeh Effect Photography lies in its definition and provides some fun cliché slogans.

“Bokeh Effect Photography:  Bringing Your World into Focus
“Bokeh Effect Photography:  Blurring Out Life’s Background Noise
“Bokeh Effect Photography: Emphasizing Your Foreground

In the end, we choose the name because it describes a rather amazing photographic interaction between light and our lenses and because it sounds cool.  The sweet Japanese lettering doesn’t hurt either.  (cLotti has flown to Japan nine times; he digs it)

Meet Erik and cLotti

Erik’s Abridged Life Story

This is that part of the website where the photographer tells you how, at such an early age, they felt the tingles of joy whenever pressing a shutter button. No surprises here. I was the same way.

Mom, 40D & a 70-200 2.8 IS .... adorable

I started shooting on an old 35mm (Canon AE-1 Program to be exact). This was a hand-me-down from my mom after I started taking a black and white photography class in high school (You Rule Mom!).

The classes featured all of the cool “before digital” processes of photography including processing the film, enlarging in the darkroom and adding effects without the aid of digital manipulation. It was a darn good time and provided me a great base of information on how things actually work.

I still totally dig the whole technical process but have moved on to using Lightroom and Photoshop as my work flow. There is just so much sweet stuff you can do with those apps. Even though I am quite the computer geek — I still am amazed when I read through a tutorial on something I’ve never done and then apply it to one of my shots — digital is so cool!

So let’s see — I grew up in Brookfield, Wisconsin in a nice home that was actually directly across from Brookfield Central (some of you reading this entry who used to used to attend Brookfield Central High School and used to smoke pot or cigerettes prior to school might remember my front yard but might not have known me.) But I digress….I went to UW-Stout for undergrad and graduate programs. I met a lot of cool people, took some great classes and really started dumping money into phography so I can one day make it a career and not just a side job/hobby. It was during this nine year period that I really fell in love with northwestern Wisconsin (I was working at the University for three of those years so don’t worry it did not take me seven years to get my undergrad…it took five. )

My buddy Zach (left) and I sporting our MOvember mustaches. He pulls it off better.

Anyways…I’m rambling. To get to the point in easy bullet format:

- Grew up in Brookfield, Wisconsin
- Went to college in Menomonie, Wisconsin (UW-Stout)
- Left Wisconsin for two years
- Returned to Wisconsin because I missed family, friends and cheese curds
- Currently making a new life in Northwest Wisconsin (Menomonie at the moment)

When I’m not playing with cameras I am probably working on something involving computers. Yup…my dorkyness (is that even a word?) knows no bounds! Any other questions — just ask!

cLotti’s Abridged Life Story

As a small ginger child I found the sun to be very hot ,was very into drawing at a young age , then was introduced to cameras @Stout and found a new love .

After getting my Major finished -Graphic Communications Management /BS degree Started my minor in digital photography – many class discussions in Erik and I found humor in many of the same things and also related on/in many activities/conversation – and teaming up on allot of projects

After finishing our first film also our final project (A+work ) “Ru-bi’kon and round the clock photo taking for the 06′ UW-Stout fashion show . I think we both new it would only be a matter of time before we were back at it . Then I was off on a 3 year live out of a suit-case international work trip . I was a material handling system installation supervisor ,thats a title now – it was a engineering type job – plant layouts , running and operating crews , cranes, man-lifts – welding ,cutting , heavy steel construction, electric work , layout of gravity based systems. From Japan, Canada, Bahamas, Australia, Mexico.

Over that time I spent most of my earnings and time on cameras , tri-pods , computers and never lost my passion only made it grow with so many interesting places to photograph . Also a big part of my time is spent doing video/film as well -Run Sluedogproductions.com, secondary color correction is my main goal and anything made by MAC will usually excite me