Oh 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.

For this challenge, we asked to see images brimming with Bokeh and as usual, we were not disappointed with the results.

Here, in no particular order, are our top 10 images for the Penultimate challenge of emerge, Bokehlicious. Congratulations to the photographers.

- Charlotte & Craig 🐶 📸 ✨

Beatrix Szecsenyi | Kutyafotózás Szabadtéren Szécsényi Beatrix

Twilight is such a great time to find bokeh as the lights are coming on. The reflected bokeh from the lights in the hills really adds to the success of this shot.

Cindy Mayes

Great depth and a good choice to have the owner's legs slightly in front of the dog so they don't become too attention-grabbing, really great framing and triangle shape too. Then you've got some beautiful big bokeh!

Janet Liu | Big Blue Dog Photography

This image has an immediate impact from the dog's intense expression and the very sparkly tree. But there's a lot of more subtle bokeh in the image too!

Karen Havenaar | Pr1mo Fotografie

There's a really cool three-dimensional quality to the bokeh in this shot that really draws you into the image and the dog at its centre.

Kelly Pettitt | Kelly Pettitt Photography

Fantastic colour harmony in the way that the eyes match the tones in the bokeh and the intense red background really make the dog stand out.

Keri Nakahashi | Keri Nakahashi Photography

Splashes of snow bokeh! Great action shot, lovely light, and a great take on the challenge brief.

Louise Kennedy | Phoenix Pet Photography

Lovely large bokeh circles created by using a long focal length, a great use of negative space and the dogs pose and expression are excellent.

Nicole Moyer | Sweet Ellie Photography

Absolutely gorgeous posing, lovely colour harmony and there's plenty of bokeh in this one too!

Sarah Jones | Mucky Pup Photography

Great use of framing, lovely bokeh and the edit is beautiful!

Toni Greatorex

What a cosy feeling image with a wintery, festive mood. Gorgeous twinkly bokeh that is perfect for this challenge brief.

Emerge is the second series in our Unleashed Challenge courses and is made up of 12 challenges over 6 months. It’s open to anyone who has completed our first course in the series, Embark.

So much more than just a challenge, the Unleashed Challenges are an invaluable educational resource that will help you build up a go-to list of shots to help create variety in your work. Designed for anyone to be able to complete whether you just want to photograph your own dog or you are a professional pet photographer.

If you'd like to know more head over here to register your interest and we'll send you all the details when enrolment for Embark next opens in 2023.