Photography

Little Corona del Mar (Traveling Burnside Project)

Published: Sat, Jun 16, 2018
Written by GizellaN
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Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Landscape, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Traveling Burnside Project, Photography, USA
Tags: Burnside 35, landscape, Lensbaby, Little Corona del Mar, Photography
The Lensbaby Burnside lens arrived yesterday. This morning it was low-tide, so I took the Burnside and the Velvet 56 to Little Corona del Mar (Newport Beach, CA), to one of my favorite low-tide places in Southern California.
I tested both lenses facing the same subject at all settings; with the burnside it meant using apertures F16 to F2.8, and with each aperture I used all 4 vignette settings. On the Velvet it was just the various apertures I tried.
My observations: my frame contained some cloudy skies, and with F16, F11, F8 and F5.6 the maximum vignette added too much darkness with the Burnside. I liked the maximum vignette with wider apertures, because what was darkened was also blurry (last two images).
F16
F11
F8
F5.6
F4
F2.8

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The Lensbaby Traveling Burnside Project

Published: Wed, Jun 13, 2018
Written by GizellaN
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Categories: Architecture, Blog, Burnside 35, Hungary, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Traveling Burnside Project, Photography
Tags: architecture, Budapest, Burnsdie 35, Hungary, Lensbaby, Parliament
A few weeks ago I got a chance to apply to participate in a project called the Traveling Burnside, and I am one of the chosen participants. Due to my summer traveling schedule I was given a special opportunity to keep the new Lensbaby lens for a longer period of time instead of just a couple of weeks. I am extremely happy about this opportunity: having this lens (and other Lensbaby lenses) with me in Hungary in the  summer will liven up my trip.
I have been taking photos in Hungary during my summer trips for over a decade, close to two. I’ve visited the same locations over and over with the hopes of capturing them from new points of view. Using the Lensbaby lenses this coming summer will definitely give me a new way of portraying my lovely birth town.Here are a few examples of how I have seen the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest in the past 8 years or so:

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Disconnected and Disappearing (El Toro Airbase Thematic)

Published: Tue, Feb 27, 2018
Written by GizellaN
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Categories: Blog, Photo Events, Photography, Photoshop, USA
Tags: El Toro Airbase, Photography

Picture

The End of an Era
In April, May and June of 2013, as well as in June of 2014 I attended a few photographic workshops lead by members of The Legacy Project. During these days the participants were taken back to shut down runways and hangars of the former El Toro Airbase, which were closed to the public.
Why did I attend these workshops? It wasn’t a military background. I very much enjoy taking pictures of architecture, and the older the building it is, the more interesting it becomes to me. Portraying former beauty or function in decaying buildings and places is another favorite photographic topic for me. When I heard about the first workshop and how close to our home it was going to be, I signed up right away. I am very glad I did. This was a very interesting and eerie location to visit and to photograph.
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Practicing with the Lensbaby Sweet 50

Published: Sat, Feb 10, 2018
Written by GizellaN
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Categories: Blog, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Photography, Sweet 50 or 35
Tags: flower, Lensbaby, Photography, Sweet 50
I’m ready to play! After years and years of chasing tack sharp images, I’m looking forward to trying something else. I am on an adventure to find out what magical things I can create with the Lensbaby lenses.
I first heard about these lenses six-eight years ago from my father-in-law, but at that time I didn’t look into them. Then last Fall I watched two of Kathleen Clemons’ CreativeLive.com classes about flower photography*, and she also mentioned how much she loved these lenses. So here I am, owning and learning my first system – the Composer Pro II with the Sweet 50 optic.

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My Photo Challenges in 2018

Published: Sat, Feb 03, 2018
Written by GizellaN
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Categories: Blog, Photography
Tags: Photography
This year I am participating both in a 365-day and a 52-week photo challenge. For the first one I post an image (old or new) every day on Instagram. For the latter one I need to take or create an image a week on a certain topic. This week our topic was “Symmetry”. I kind of ran out of time to go on a photoshoot, so I ended up creating my image. 
A few days ago I found a piece of wood that had fallen off of a palm tree. I picked it up and took it home. Sometimes I do stuff like that… When I looked at the piece it sparked my imagination; I saw it being the wing of a butterfly. 
First, I took a picture of it on a grey piece of cloth, just using my iPhone. The rest of the steps were done in Photoshop.

As a first step I cut out the wood from the background, then reflected it to create a butterfly shape. I’ve added a background and some textures, as well as a butterfly shaped stamp. This layer also received some textures.
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Then I experimented with blend modes and different lighting effects. Finally I added a color effect and contrast, and ended up with this final image:
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The goal of this creation was not to come up with a super realistic image, rather the symmetry was my main purpose. Therefore, I left shadows in the picture that clearly give away that this is not a real moth.
This was such a fun exercise!