Sweet 50 or 35

Perfect Imperfection – Something I Can Achieve with my Lensbaby Lenses

Published: Thu, May 16, 2019
Written by GizellaN
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Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Inspirational, Lensbaby, Photo Technique, Photography, Sol 45, Sweet 50 or 35, Velvet 56
Tags: Lensbaby

Whenever I talk to people about my current photography I tell them that Lensbaby lenses are perfect for me. The funny part is that many Lensbaby images are far from perfect if you are looking at them with your technical eyes only. I could even say that Lensbaby pictures are perfectly imperfect. What do I mean by this? Let me show you some of my creations and explain how the imperfection led me to create something that I felt stood out from the crowd.

Let’s start with this image, which I took with the Sweet 50 (my very first LB lens). Technically this image is not successful. I clearly wasn’t able to focus fast enough on any of the birds. Despite this, I really like the outcome. Thanks to the special effects created by the lens, I feel the movement of the birds, and I can almost hear the noise gulls make when a large flock of them fly away all at once.

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The Shoreline Project (Laguna Beach, CA)

Published: Mon, Nov 05, 2018
Written by GizellaN
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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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Lensbaby Session with a Pink Dahlia

Published: Wed, Oct 31, 2018
Written by GizellaN
6 Comments
Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Double Glass, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Photo Technique, Photography, Pinhole, Single Glass, Sol 45, Sweet 50 or 35, Velvet 56
Tags: Dahlia, flower, Lensbaby, Photography

I have once again added a few more pieces to my Lensbaby lens collection; this time I found a set of three optics that fit into my Composer Pro base. I also found a beautiful pink Dahlia plant at the local nursery where I learn about gardening tips and tricks on most Saturdays.

I was wondering how differently I could capture the same flower with all my Lensbaby lenses and optics. So I emerged in a photo session with the Dahlia for a good two hours. I used  two additional accessories for all images: a +10 macro filter or a +10 macro filter combined with a 36mm macro tube.

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LA County Arboretum Visit with my Lensbabies

Published: Sun, Aug 12, 2018
Written by GizellaN
2 Comments
Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Photography, Photowalk, Sweet 50 or 35, USA, Velvet 56
Tags: Burnside 35, LA County Arboretum, Lensbaby, Photography, Sweet 35, Velvet 56
Smile! You are on camera.
Yesterday I made a visit to the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia. It was another hot (89F) and sunny day, not the most ideal day for photography, but I still had a ton of fun. I took all four of my Lensbaby lenses and I ended up using three of them. I started out with the Burnside 35, switched over to the Velvet 56, and finally used the Sweet 35. Let me take you on a pictorial walk of the arboretum and also give you some of my thoughts about the lenses.
There are lots of different birds at the Arboretum, but what it is most famous for are the peacocks. There are over 200 peafowls leaving on the premises currently. These two were my favorite photographs of them from yesterday, and I prefer the Burnside photo over the Sweet 35.
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