Macro Magic with the Sol 45 | Kathleen Clemons

I have been testing something new from my friends at Lensbaby and am madly in love with this little lens! It's called the

You can change the tilt of the blades easily:

I haven't taken this lens off my camera since it arrived. I have been feeling a shift in my work recently for more blur and limited depth of field, and the fixed f/3.5 aperture fits that beautifully. Shooting for selective focus makes you slow down, compose carefully, and think about what it is you want to highlight in your subject. Careful focus placement is also essential with this type of work.

Here are some samples of what I have been shooting, straight out of the camera. I have used the

This lens is definitely not just for macro and not just for flowers, I had fun shooting many different subjects, even lobster traps!

There is also a version for Micro 4/3rds users, the Sol 22 has a minimum focus distance of 3.5 inches.

A few tips for using the Sol 45:

• A background with lots of lines will show more effect.
• You can push the blades out of the way if you don't want the effect for a particular subject.
• Remember the minimum focus distance, if you get closer than the Sol can focus you will get frustrated.
• Try tilting, don't put all of your subjects in the center.
• Compose and focus carefully, use selective focus to draw your viewer's eye to what you found to be more interesting in the scene.

Happy shooting!
Kathleen

Check out more of Kathleen's work at her website, Instagram and Facebook.