Velvet 56

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)

Read More

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
Read More

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.

Read More

Beauty in Life and Death

Published: Sun, Oct 28, 2018
Written by GizellaN
2 Comments
Categories: Blog, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Photo Technique, Photography, Photoshop, Velvet 56
Tags: flower, Lephotographynsbaby, Velvet 56

Flowers make me very happy. Their sight and their fragrance make me feel in a way that not a lot of other living or not living things do. I admire their ability to attract my attention as well as of insects, I love how colorful they can be, and how my mood changes positively when I am surrounded with flowers.

A few weeks back I purchased some annuals for my backyard, including a Denver Daisy. Everything on this flower is very photogenic. It doesn’t matter from which direction I approach this beauty, it almost always gives me wonderful photographic results. In fact, I truly enjoyed their beauty after they passed their prime. It was a different kind of beauty, but I loved it nevertheless.

In order to portray the difference of the live floral beauty and the dead one, I used a slightly different post-processing technique. I created painterly images from all, but I used two kinds of color schemes; a warm palette for the earlier flowers and a much colder and dramatic one for the second set. One image I digitally hand painted. This is a technique that I am currently studying, and this was one of my practice pictures.

Read More