In the spring of 2018 I was extremely happy to find out that I was one of the chosen Traveling Burnside Project participants. I was given a Lensbaby Burnside 35 lens to take pictures with partially in the United States, and then in Hungary as well.
I took all my Lensbaby lenses on my trip to Europe, and one zoom lens. Surprisingly, I left the Burnside on my camera for most of the time, and not just because of the project. I liked how light my gear was, I liked looking for the right subjects for the lens, and I started becoming more efficient with manual focusing as well. I found that certain topics didn’t work for me with this lens, but many others did. Obviously, the same can be said about any lens. I loved finding subjects where I could utilize the swirly effect.
I have been writing about my experience with the lens (all posts here), but as the end of the project approached I felt I should give my final thoughts about it.
First, I want to tell you where I felt I was most successful with the lens. I absolutely loved certain floral images the lens created. Utilizing the wide open aperture and the highest vignette setting I’ve created flower images that really wowed me. Some of the following pictures were created strictly with the Burnside, for others I used a +4 or +10 macro filter. My post-process tools were Lightroom, On1 Effects, and rarely Photoshop.

Something I really enjoyed in the creation of the above (and most of the featured) images is that they were all handheld. I found it much easier to take handheld images with this lens than with the Velvet 56 and the Sweet optics.
For focusing I utilized the back screen, and for the best results I took about 4-5 images with slight focus differences. My eyesight is not perfect anymore, and having these few pictures helped me choose the one with the right (or preferred) focus.

​My second and third favorite subjects with this lens were landscapes and architecture, but only on overcast days. One of my expectations for the Burnside 35 prior to using it was to be able to create images of my favorite places in Budapest that I had photographed dozens of times before. Many of the pictures lived up to my expectations, but not all. For the architectural pictures I used apertures between F8 and F16, and I didn’t like the strong vignette on clear days if the sky was part of the picture.
After using the lens for a few weeks I started getting a feel for the right topics. One of these topics for me was the local cemetery with its not very well cared for or completely abandoned graves. The vignette added a sad mood to the captures and also helped emphasize the main subject.

I do not take many people pictures other than family ones. I did try the Burnside with people a few times, but mostly candidly. When it was a posed picture, I had trouble asking my subjects to be patient with me while I focused on them. Obviously, this is not the lens’ fault, it is a personal thing. Here are a few pictures with people that I found acceptable:

Shooting with the Burnside and other Lensbaby lenses is a different kind of experience.  When I use any of the Lensbaby lenses I tend to take more time to compose, focus, and work with the subject. Even though I am using a DSLR, having this lens reminds me of the film camera days.

There were a few times when I missed my zoom lens. I felt that sometimes I couldn’t get close enough to my subject and too much of the image had non-interesting information in it. Of course, this would have been the case with a different 35mm prime lens as well in that same situation.
Here is an example. As we were driving through a village in Hungary, we noticed a stork nest on top of an electrical pole. We pulled over and first I took an image with the Burnside:

Then I quickly switched to my zoom lens and took this image:

In this case I was glad that I had a lens I could take a close up picture with of these beautiful birds.I really enjoyed the Traveling Burnside Project! It was super fun trying out something new and sharing my images and experiences with others. I got to see fellow project participants’ images which were very inspiring. They gave me ideas of subjects and situations I tried or want to try later. The project made my trip to Hungary even more enjoyable.​ Thank you for the opportunity, Lensbaby!