I Just Gave Birth...

to a Lensbaby! That's right, there is a new family member amongst my photography equipment family. The newest arrival is an amazing Lensbaby kit that I bought with part of the Amazon gift card Ford gave me for buying the Flex. It is totally unnecessary and a completely frivolous purchase, but live dangerously, right?

The Lensbaby is a very unique lens that causes a distinct and heavy blur surrounding one small area of clear focus. Yes, you can reproduce this effect with Photoshop techniques, but why when you can have your SOC (Straight Out of Camera) images look like this! Almost all of these images are SOC besides preparing for the web. Some were converted to black and white.

I was so excited when my new baby arrived via UPS that I ripped it right out of the box and started shooting. Whatever was around, I shot. I had no idea how to use it...I just experimented. Some the images aren't the best compositionally, as I didn't realize how to change the focus point at first (the lens bends...yes, bends!) So, some of the "sweet spots" are right in the middle of the image, which is a no-no in most cases.


Ty's new eyes: He recently got contacts, which you can see in this photo (click to enlarge). I used the macro adapter for this shot.

Some sort of rubbery plant in my garden. Taken with macro adapter.

Emerging leaves. Marco adapter.

Peony leaves sprouting. Macro adapter.

My chaotic kitchen with the boxes ripped open and strewn everywhere in my excitement. Taken with wide angle adapter.

Buddy. Taken with wide angle adapter and cropped.

Softball practice. Wide angle adapter.


Bird's eye view of Teddy by the window. Regular Lensbaby.

Martha, anyone?

Another thing that came with the kit was a creative aperture adapter. The aperture (hole in the lens) is shaped like a star or heart. When you have lots of lights, the bokeh turns out in the shape of the aperture, in this case, a star.

How did I do that? I focused on the light in this image so you can see what I used...(white Christmas lights!) The in focus part looks natural, while the out of focus parts turn into the shape of the aperture.

Here is the heart aperture. This will look cool when it is Christmas time and I use a snowflake aperture to shoot the Christmas tree!

And finally, some fun with my flowers. Some are with the regular Lensbaby and some are with the macro adapter.





All my Lensbaby love,

~I've packed all my things
They're heavy on my back~

P.S. I am a little bloggy vacation until after Easter. I will be able to see comments, but may not be able to visit everyone. Catch ya on the other side!