Burnside 35

Lensbaby Burnside 35 Testing – How Can I Create a Swirling Effect in my Images?

Published: Wed, Mar 27, 2019
Written by GizellaN
4 Comments
Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Photo Technique, Photography
Tags: Burnside, experimenting, flowers, Lensbaby, Swirling, testing

Since last summer one of my favorite Lensbaby lenses is the Burnside 35. I found many ways of using it, and I also know what subjects it doesn’t work with – at least for me. One of the features I really like in this lens is the swirling effect that happens when I use it at a wide open aperture of F2.8. But the aperture setting is not enough for the swirling to happen, so I set out to find out what else I need for the effect to show up in my images. In my experiment I had some success, but I also found it to be somewhat flawed.

I purchased a large bouquet of sunflowers, because they looked amazing. After about an hour of arranging them in a vase, filled with beans for stability and precise placement of the stems, I had a background ready for the test pictures. I needed the flowers to spread out as much as possible in the two dimensional picture, and this took some trial and error to achieve with the three dimensional objects. I created the photographs in my dining area, where there was plenty of natural light coming in through the windows. The only light modifier I used was a large piece of foam board from Home Depot with one side covered in a silver layer. This helped with brightening the shadows on the right side of the bouquet.

I started out with photographing the bouquet with various apertures. Since these are just test shots, I did not worry much about the sides not being perfect and some stuff showing from behind the black screen.

No Subject-Darkest Aperture-No Vignette

No Subject-Darkest Aperture-Max Vignette

No Subject-Brightest Aperture-No Vignette

No Subject-Brightest Aperture-Max Vignette
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Winter Rains Bring Spring Flowers to Southern California – Lensbaby Blog Circle

Published: Fri, Mar 01, 2019
Written by GizellaN
14 Comments
Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Blog Circle, Photography, USA, Velvet 56
Tags: Burnside 35, Lensbaby, Orange County, Velvet 56, Wildflowers

Our family moved to Southern California in June of 2012. Since that time we only experienced the wilderness in shades of green decorated with blooming wildflowers once, two years ago. The only time this happens in the spring is when we get enough rain during the winter months. To my delight, it is happening again this spring, after a very wet winter.

I discovered a nearby area two years ago with beautiful California Poppies; last Sunday I visited the same area hoping to find similar poppy fields. I headed to the park early, I was there not long after sunrise; the park was pretty empty, I only saw one person in the parking area. I started hiking, but after a few short minutes I noticed something from the corner of my eyes. I stopped and turned my head to discover that a coyote was standing about 50-60 yards away from me.

After staring at each other for a few seconds I started walking on the path, but kept my eyes on her. She then moved, and I noticed that poor animal was limping. I really felt sorry for her and I knew that she wouldn’t be able to hurt me. She hopped away and I continued my hike to the poppy field.

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A Visit to Whitney Plantation, Wallace, LA – Lensbaby Blog Circle

Published: Thu, Jan 31, 2019
Written by GizellaN
12 Comments
Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Blog Circle, Photography, Photowalk, Recommendations, USA
Tags: Burnside 35, Lensbaby, Louisiana, museum, slavery, Whitney Plantation

In January of 2019 my family took a 4 day trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. You can read about the whole trip in my previous blog post. One of the highlights of the trip was visiting a plantation, which is the only one focused on the slaves of Louisiana. I had planned to write about this visit in my Lensbaby Blog Circle post prior to going there, and I decided on using my Burnside 35 lens. This is the Lensbaby lens that I grab for times when I am not by myself, but rather with my family. Since we were part of a large group, and there were areas where I could not have been able to stop and focus with my manual lens, I sometimes grabbed my phone to take additional pictures. I will be showing you images taken both with my Burnside lens and my phone (always noted) in this blog post.

The first owner of the plantation was Ambroise Heidel (at around 1752), whose family immigrated from Germany. They, among many other German immigrants, settled in the first German Coast (St. Charles Parish). The German Coast became a main food supplier to New Orleans. The Hayden Plantation turned into one of the most important sugar plantations in the State, and the owners one of the wealthiest people of the area. None of this could have happened without the extremely hard work of the enslaved African people they “owned” on their plantation.

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A Bit of Fall at the LA County Arboretum

Published: Thu, Dec 20, 2018
Written by GizellaN
2 Comments
Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Double Glass, Landscape, Lensbaby, Photography, Photowalk, Pinhole, Single Glass, Sol 45, USA, Velvet 56
Tags: Fall colors, LA County Arboretum, Lensbaby

In mid-December I was able to make another visit to the Los Angeles County Arboretum. Since my daughter started high school, visiting places that are somewhat far from us has become quite difficult due to her very strange drop off and pick up schedule. But this day provided an opportunity to spend some time farther away from home, and I chose the Arboretum for my destination.

I have been using my Lensbaby lenses a lot more than my auto lenses. One exception was a fundraising project at my daughter’s school theater program, where I documented their creation of a play throughout two weeks of rehearsals, and made the images available to purchase for the parents, which resulted in some extra funds for the Theater program. When it comes to people photography, catching moments on stage – especially with youth actors – is what I really enjoy to do.

Now back to my Arboretum visit. I first walked though the Aloe Trail, and towards the end of it I found this gorgeous succulent in the shade. (Velvet 56)

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The Shoreline Project (Laguna Beach, CA)

Published: Mon, Nov 05, 2018
Written by GizellaN
No comments
Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Double Glass, Landscape, Lensbaby, Photo Events, Photography, Single Glass, Sol 45, Sweet 50 or 35, USA, Velvet 56
Tags: Elizabeth Turk, Laguna Beach, Lensbaby, Shoreline Project

On Saturday, November 3rd, 2018, Laguna Art Museum hosted an event on the Main Beach of Laguna Beach, CA. Entitled the “Shoreline Project” was a community project based upon Elizabeth Turk’s art work. Hundreds of volunteers held led-lit umbrellas that featured Seashell Mandalas by Elizabeth Turk and moved around with them.

My friend and I arrived more than an hour prior to the start of the event and set up our cameras in a good vantage point. We were able to see the whole beach from the cliff; unfortunately the volunteer dancers did not move much away from their original location. I only took my Lensbaby lenses with me, and just one 85mm prime lens.

While we were waiting for the event, I captured the late afternoon beach with various LB lenses. On some of the following images you can see the group of volunteers dressed in black on the left side of the pictures.

Sol 45
Double Glass
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