B is for Bokeh. It is a Japanese word, meaning senility or dizziness, but has been adopted by the photographic comunity to refer to the out of focus areas in a photograph when a shallow depth of field is used. Not just blurry bits, but also distinctly shaped out of focus highlights, usually circular, but that depends on the aperture blades within the lens itself. You can make filters to go over a lens to change the shape of the bokeh and some instructions how to do that are HERE but you can also buy sets on Amazon though I think I’d rather make my own.

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B is for Beaton,Cecil. Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beacon (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was an English fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, and an Oscar winning stage and costume designer for films and theatre. Famous for photographing icons of the 20th century he was less well known for his work for the Ministry of Information during the war, but they are well worth seeing and you can do so HERE .

B is for Black & White. Black & White is the oldest form of photography, starting back in the 15th century when Robert Boyle, an Irish scientist discovered that silver chloride turned dark when exposed to air in a dark room.  Click on this link for a short history of black & white photography.

B is for Bailey, David. (b.1938) Bailey revolutionised fashion and portrait photography in the 1960’s, photographing musicians, artists and capturing ‘swinging London’. He shot for Vogue, produced TV documentaries and did album covers, and continues to have a prolific career.