Walks with the Lensbaby Fisheye – Lensbaby Blog Circle
In mid-August I grew my Lensbaby family with a Fisheye lens, which was then on sale (September 1st is the last day to get a nice $100 off of the lens). Due to a nasty backache I haven’t been able to shoot much lately, but I did take the new lens on two shorter walks with me. The first one was in a nearby park on an overcast day, and the second one was to Descanso Gardens near Los Angeles. Using the Fisheye lens certainly has a learning curve.
During my first walk I featured my feet in most of the images, because I didn’t want to include too much of the empty, boring sky in the pictures. Instead, my shoes made their regular appearance, which I only noticed at home. I was more careful with this during my second trip. I also felt that the sunny day provided more opportunities for interesting pictures than the overcast one. I tried incorporating the Sun in some of my images, and the reflection ring around the pictures also added to their interest.
I personally like those pictures the best that fill most of the round frame, and where I was able to get very close to the main subject (as close as 1cm!). I will be looking for interesting subjects to shoot with the Fisheye lens.
Here is an image selection from my two walks:
1. Bosque Walking/Biking Trail in Irvine
2. Descanso Gardens
This post is part of a group of posts about Lensbaby related topics. At the beginning of each month we feature images and stories taken with our Lensbaby lenses, and link to each other. Next up in the blog circle is Jessica, please click this link to see her post and keep following the circle!
I see you! 😀 (The pink flower at the Descano gardens.) I love the circular fisheye, but I agree that there’s a huge challenge in staying out of the picture frame. I quite commonly capture my fingertips, or my sleeve, or even my face. Like you, I’ve found that shooting into the sun adds quite a bit of interest to the image!
It’s always fun to experiment with a new (or old) lens and create something different. I’m looking forward to finding out what I can do with the Fisheye.
Yes, it must be tricky… I also like the pictures that fill the frame. My favorite is the cosmea.
It’s a weird feeling to get as close as 1 cm to your subject and still have a ton more show up in your frame. I’ll keep looking for fun subjects.
What makes a Lensbaby fisheye in contrary to a normal fisheye? Is bending possible?
I am at “war” with wide-angle lenses – a fisheye is the most extreme wide angle. Photography is the art of omission. A fisheye does exactly do the opposite. It is not possible to hide things that are disturbing. I think that makes it very hard. Another point are my feet … too long – constantly in the picture …
From your photos I like the forest photos very much – 11807/11809/118017 – the last one is my favorite.
Herzliche Grüße
Birgit
Hi Birgit, I do not think that the LB Fisheye is different from other brands. I have an older fisheye lens, but it doesn’t work on my full frame camera. This one does. The picture I got with this lens is actually different from the other ones in one way: this creates a circle, my other one was a rectangular image.
I prefer close ups and more intimate images, but this one is fun to work with as well.
I can see you had a lot of fun with the Fisheye – and I know the problem of visible feet and/or tripods with my wideangle pinhole cameras 😉
I like the closeups best.
I’m glad I am not the only one with the “foot problem”. 🙂