How we love a background brimming with colourful, sparkly bokeh! These bubbles of light create a beautiful effect and add interest and life to a soft, out of focus background.

Bokeh stems from a Japanese word translating to ‘blur’, and refers to the aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus or blurry area of a photo, often in the background, but also possible in the foreground. Out-of-focus pinpoints of light, or specular highlights in the background, create the most obvious bokeh, as they are converted into well-defined, bright circles of light.

This is the penultimate challenge in Emerge and we are here to celebrate all that delicious sparkly light.

Here, in no particular order are our top 10 images from this challenge. Well done to the photographers who created this beautiful work showcasing the bond between these best buddies.

Charlotte & Craig 🐶 📸 ✨

We provide video feedback on all images submitted for the challenge, and from there, we select our Top 20 and Top 10. Without further ado, here are the Top 10 images for this challenge!

Abi Bradbury | Abi B Photography

Excellent depth in this image with Bokeh in the foreground. The colour harmonises wonderfully with the cat's eyes.

Carol Mudra | Apawture Studios

Fabulous colour choices in the lighting! The detail and sharpness in the dog, and that wonderful expression are really engaging and the bokeh and blur are used to great effect.

Connie Passejna

What a mysterious image! The hazy, indistinct horizon makes this image feel like it goes into infinity. The sparkly bokeh in the water has great layers and draws you to the subject beautifully.

Jackie Searies | Photos By Jackie.S

What a pose and expression! Bokeh is well defined and brings a lovely warmth to the image.

Kaori Stewart | Kaori Stewart Photography

Gorgeous expression, beautiful rim light and well-distributed orbs of bokeh make for an excellent Bokehlicious submission.

Laurie Vermiere | brodys_tale

This seasonal delight is totally bokehlicious! The dark tones are rich and inviting and the colour harmony is divine.

Rachel McCready | Furtographer

Such an engaging expression, the light bokeh nicely contrasts with the darkness in the background.

Rebecca Labs

What a fascinating take on the Bokehlicious brief! The cool night tones and starry bokeh and the warm tones of the dog make a wonderful complementary colour scheme.

Samantha Brown | Samantha Brown Photography

The deep blacks and crisp whites of the dog are beautifully edited. Golden bokeh orbs really sparkle and the sense of scale is nicely exaggerated by the tree stump.

Sara (Nell) | oslo_oska_whippet_boys

An excellent use of negative space that allows the bokeh to be part of the composition while also acting as lines to draw you to the subject. The triangles made by the colour gradient and the dog strengthen the composition too.

Emerge is the intermediate 6-month interactive challenge-based dog photography course in our Unleashed Challenges series, focusing on helping you to expand your shooting shot list and learn valuable new skills.

Emerge is open to students who have previously completed the first course in the series, Embark.

Want to be the first to hear when Embark opens for enrolment each year? Register your interest here.