About six or seven years ago, while visiting my birth country, Hungary, I started working on a photo thematic. I loved walking on the old streets of the Castle District in Budapest, and I was (and still am) amazed by the gorgeous – mostly antique- door handles many of the doors have there. In addition to finding more ornate and wonderfully unique handles in Budapest, I also captured some in Eger, Kőszeg, and in some other cities. I created some final photos, printed and shared them with a mentor of mine. He wasn’t very impressed…
Photowalk
In mid-August I grew my Lensbaby family with a Fisheye lens, which was then on sale (September 1st is the last day to get a nice $100 off of the lens). Due to a nasty backache I haven’t been able to shoot much lately, but I did take the new lens on two shorter walks with me. The first one was in a nearby park on an overcast day, and the second one was to Descanso Gardens near Los Angeles. Using the Fisheye lens certainly has a learning curve.
Welcome to my July 1st Lensbaby Blog Circle post, in which I’d like to invite you to take a short walk with me in San Antonio, Texas. My family was taking a five-day vacation in Austin and San Antonio, and I grabbed my Lensbaby Twist 60 to capture some great moments while walking on the famous San Antonio River Walk (Paseo del Rio), which is the largest urban ecosystem in the United States. The whole walk is 15 miles long, but we mainly just visited the downtown area. You can walk by the river, enjoy a lunch or dinner in one of the many restaurants, visit small gift shops, or take a guided tour on an electric barge. We walked around the downtown area twice; once in late afternoon then after sunset. The vibe was different, but we noticed that even at night the area is very family friendly.
I really enjoyed capturing the colorful barges, and I even took pictures of people, which is very unusual for me. We saw pretty flowers, some wildlife, and at night we walked up to San Fernando Cathedral where we watched a laser light show projected to the cathedral’s wall for a few minutes. Without further ado, enjoy a brief tour of the San Antonio River Walk.
Southern California is experiencing the annual June Gloom. It’s a cloudy, overcast condition which is supposed to keep the temperatures down. But the temperatures this year have been down already; we are experiencing a very cool (but not cold!) spring. And the June Gloom is UGLY! 🙂 I remember moving to SoCal seven years ago on June 2nd, and for the first few weeks all I saw were the grey, sad looking mornings. I didn’t know about June Gloom back then, and I questioned if we really wanted to live in such a grey looking place. But I know now, that it passes.
Anyway, I still don’t like the look of it. So, when yesterday I drove down to the ocean for the second time this week, and I found the same grey conditions as before, I almost turned back home. I should not have expected anything better, but I did, and this made me cranky. I took my iPhone out and snapped a few pictures.
I found these images in a folder from the end of last year. I took a walk in a nearby park with my Lensbaby Burnside 35 and on the way back with the Velvet 56. The first image above was taken with the Velvet, the other two with the Burnside. I used Topaz Impression to create the painterly effect.