Lensbaby

LENSBABY! and bits and pieces..

  1. ​I had not really heard about Lensbaby until 10 days ago- but once I did, and understood what it actually does, I made my research (yes, well, that did not last too long, I am too impulsive) and in no time I placed an order on Amazon for one of their lenses.

So what is it? Better check the website really, for a thorough explanation. Be careful as you might want to get one too very quickly.... Lensbaby.com

​So this is what it does in a nutshell:

Luckily I got some flowers on Friday (Woman's day + good boyfriend = pretty flowers) so I could experiment with something sufficiently interesting...​

So basically it is a small "tilt and shift" lens, that you can actually move and point into the direction you want in focus- called the "sweet spot"- all the rest around this sweet spot will be blurred and looking like almost in motion. What is really cool about it, is that it has to work all in Manual mode, which kinda brings you back to basics. And also, the lens comes with various "apertures"... which are also manually changed, and are disks with bigger and smaller holes, to let the light in (aka... Aperture), see below:

​The small rings are changed with a small magnet. They go from 2,8f up until 22f. I mean, it is really how a camera works, after all.

​The small rings are changed with a small magnet. They go from 2,8f up until 22f. I mean, it is really how a camera works, after all.

I bought a Composer lens, which comes with an optic of 37mm (I think). What is nice is that in the actual "tilting" head, one can change the optics as well, and insert a 35mm, or 80mm, or a Fisheye. All lenses also have their own characteristic blur, like the 35mm (called Sweet 35) has it circular, and the 80mm (called Edge 80) is linear. ​

I am so excited about it, I can't wait to go out in the city and start taking pictures, and see what will happen... Here you can see what I did today, going around the living room and trying to make it work! ​

I will be flying to South Africa in less than 3 weeks, with sisters and mother, and I will take it with me- it will be very interesting..! ​

But this is not the only newbie in my pocket. After working with Roberta and shooting products for the first time, I thought I should do something better than improvising a white background with a random white board - also given the huge headache I had when working on the pictures! Lesson learn. So again, I went on Amazon, and found that with a very small expense one can get something like this:   ​

When I bought it, I did not think that it could have been too big for our table...!

It is a "photographic kit", meant for products photography, which includes a soft box (80x80cm), 3 lights, and one small tripod for the camera. ​It is a lot of fun, although I had the time to use it only once so far, and only for 15 minutes or so.

​I turned the open side in front of the window, so to have the natural light combined with two small lights.

The one thing I don't know how to solve, are all the wrinkles on the fabric, which is clearly 100% polyester, and I cannot iron it.. I should probably just keep it open and stretched for a few days... and then it will be either me or the box in the house!! ​

So I tried with this bottle (very good champagne, btw), and played with it and this should be, in theory, the final result: ​

Clearly still full of imperfections, but I am working on it! I also hand-held the camera, because I did not have time to set up a tripod, and in facts it's not a sharp picture. In facts, it's a pretty crappy one. IN FACTS, the only good thing abut this picture is the content of the bottle.

I want to keep practicing and I can't wait to go out and use my new Composer lens (but I have already said that!). I am also still waiting for a Holga Pin-Hole lens for my camera. I should have enough now for a while, and I really should stop my impulsive purchases (which once were directed to shoes and clothes, and now to all this stuff..).

Hope to have some new good pics soon! ​