Lensbaby

Hi, I'm Sam Pardue, Craig's partner in Lensbabies. I received an email last week from a photographer in LA who shoots cars professionally. He told me he had not done any personal shooting or even enjoyed photography for years. When he got his Lensbaby he had fun with his camera for the first time in a long time.

The next day I talked with a photographer in Boston who had used his Lensbaby in a product shoot. He told me he got 3 or 4 times as many useful images than he had planned, and the client was delighted with the unique, emotional, atmospheric look. He was not going to tell anyone about his new secret weapon!

My friend Jim McGinnis, whose shot I have attached to this posting, used his Lensbaby to create a series of very cool art photos that he's using for an art opening tonight at Hi-iH on Portland's Alberta Street. You can check out other images from his show here: [www.weclik.com]. (Click on the image to see the next one).

The best part of our job is hearing from people how they are enjoying their Lensbabies. So, I'd love to hear more. How do you use your Lensbaby?

Sam



see with the eyes of a child

I'm still experimenting, getting the feel of it. One thing I have noticed is that my 10D in Av mode over exposes by at least two stops. So I have been shooting manually. It's quite a trick getting the hang of this fun lens. I took out the default apeture ring and I put in the smallest of the set. The attached images are with the default factory configuration.

Bill

I like the movements possible with the lens and like the blur at the edges. I noticed that the blur area seems to have significant light fall off as well.

I am trying to build a little adjustable harness out of string and velcro that I can use to position the lens for longer exposures...

Bill and Jim, I am inspired by the shots you have posted. You both show a beautiful sensitivity to subject matter. Bill, the feet in your second photo look like they are very happy toasting in the sun. Jim those legs are lovely and sinuous as they lean against that tree. I love these black and white! photos!!

My friend Jerry Hart, whose photos appear in the gallery section of our website, has done some beautiful product photography with his Lensbaby. This photo of asparagus was created for a local restaurant. Delicious!



see with the eyes of a child

Pulled it out of the bag again. Hand held a red filter over it for this one.

js

Great example of the conical field of focus. Foreground grass has a half-circle of focus, parts of the tree in focus, sky in middle in focus while the branches in front of the in focus sky are blurred.

Super subject matter. Shot on B&W film?

Have a great one.

-Craig



You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.
Heraclitus of Ephesus

I'm not a professional photographer, only hobbyist, working mostly in the studio, trying to make fine art nudes. Since I have the Lensbaby, I tried it in several shootings with different results. Due to the fact that I use mostly the F4, I have to slow down the flashes a lot, so its getting really dark in the studio and makes it eaven harder to get the focus. One of my favourites are Moms-to-be and in this special situation, the baby give the pictures a special kind of romatic touch. They all love it, although they mostly start laughing when I put this "Rubberduck" (a model named it that way) on the camera. In two or three weeks I'll have a "Lensbaby-Only" shooting with a friendly model. Will try some details. I'm going to give a try on differnet lightsettings. Maybe I'll find a way to solve that focusproblem.
When working Outdoor, I have the same problems as billkaroly, the pics are always overexposed. But with the exposure correction permanently set to -2 I'm quite happy. Tomorrow morning I'm going to make a walk through the city, let's see how Cologne looks at 6am :-)
I've attached one of the last studio pictures made with F4 and 1/200. Maybe you already know this one. Will have another Mom-to-be in the studio on wednesday. If you like, I'll post some of the pictures then.
Greetings from Cologne
Guchot

Here is my recent take with lensbaby [members.shaw.ca].

There was so dark that I have to set lensbaby at f/2.4 and underexpose 2 stops. It's soft and grainy but I still like it since atmosphere is there.


Darko

Big Ten football. Follow-focus is tough!

I used mine for the first time in Italy right after I swiped it off the front of Drake Busath's camera. It was a blast, I had no instruction, used it for about 5 shots before he caught on. I just ordered my own and am excited to play more. I really like looking at everyone's "vision" with this thing.