To my delight, I was able to join a group of wonderful Lensbaby photographers from around the world, and take part in their monthly Lensbaby Blog Circle. At the beginning of the month we all feature images in a post created with various Lensbaby lenses on diverse topics. To visit all the blog posts you just need to sit back, enjoy a post, then click on the link posted at the end of the post to hop over to the next one. I’m very excited to be part of this group.
For my first Blog Circle post I am featuring images from Laguna Beach, California. I have just received my new Lensbaby lens, the Sol 45. I had seen a lot of wonderful images taken with this lens in our Facebook group and on Instagram, and I was very eager to try out myself. On the first day I had it, I created some macro flower images in my backyard. They turned out delightful. But I wanted to see what kind of pictures I can create in a non-macro environment. I decided to go on a beach hopping tour – visit my most favorite beaches in the town of Laguna Beach and just shoot, shoot, and shoot.

The first beach I walked down to on these steps was actually one which I had not visited before: Table Rock Beach. After reaching the bottom of the steps I was presented with this view:

The tide was rather high, and I made the mistake of standing too low on an unknown beach. Results? My feet (and shoes) were covered by water in the first 10 minutes. The accident happened while I was taking images of the rock formation from a closer range. (See smaller image on right.)

When I looked at those images on my computer, I didn’t like them – and it had nothing to do with the water drenching my shoes. The Sol 45 creates a small circular area of focus surrounded by a smooth blur and bokeh. But when I was close to the rock two areas were fighting for the attention: the bulging rock on the left side, and the waves hitting on the right. I focused on the waves, but having the prominent rock on the left blurry bothered me.

I rarely take people pictures, but I certainly enjoyed the Sol’s ability to place these nice beach goers in the focus of my image with one click.

After walking back to my car and changing into my sandals (having a second pair of shoes came handy), I drove to my second stop of the day: the Montage Resort. The resort has a wonderful walk by the ocean that is open to the public. They have marvelous flowers by the path, and benches to rest on and to take in the gorgeous views.

I usually visit Treasure Island Beach during low tide, but the rocks were still partially visible during today’s higher tides.

On the next picture you get a glimpse of another beach which I didn’t stop by: Aliso Beach.

This is the view looking south from the gazebo on top. My goal was to place the emphasis on the people visiting the rock. I hope I’ve succeeded.

Looking towards the north, I wanted to feature the unique vegetation:

My last beach stop for the day was a truly favorite small beach: Shaw’s Cove. Here, I started engaging the special bokeh blades too.

Once again, it was so easy to feature people with the Sol 45.

I noticed these parked kayaks and thought the lens did a great job with emphasizing the blue ones.

The truly last stop was a Crescent Bay Point Park from where I could see both Two Rock Point (with the pelicans) and Crescent Bay beach with the huge waives and water covering basically the whole beach.

During the beach hopping I took over 200 pictures. After getting home and looking at them I started noticing patterns of what worked with this lens and what didn’t. During the summer I did the same with the Burnside 35, and it did take a while to get a good feel for what the best subjects were for that lens. It will take a little while to discover my favorite subjects for the Sol, but today’s trip was definitely a good start.

Next up in the blog circle is Keri Friedman, please click this link to see her post and keep following the circle!