I wasn’t sure how to best take a photo in Hawaii that was unfocused. I kept thinking that when I take a photo of something, I would want it to be in focus to capture the beauty and details of the object or scenery. But I set out one night to try my hand at capturing the challenge.
Around the Hyatt Regency Resort & Spa in Maui, there are numerous tiki torches dotting the path along Ka’anapali Beach. They are found in sets of two and are mounted on top of faux bamboo. I found a set that were a little lower than the rest – after all, I am only 6′ tall – and started shooting them.
I decided I would get a better chance of unfocused if I used my 50mm lens with a large aperture, so I switched to that lens and went back to work. My thought was to capture fire that was out of focus, but I didn’t like how it was turning out. Since the tiki torches were found in sets of two, I decided to make one in focus, and one unfocused. Here’s the best one I captured, which I think turned out pretty good.
Canon 60D | 50mm lens | 1/250 | f/1.8 | ISO 100 | Speedlite 430EX II
I had to use a flash to light up the actual torches, otherwise it was just an orange blob floating in the air, which didn’t look so hot (pun intended).
~signed, Carltonaut
Carltonaut 
It’s a nice post.