Inspired by Now

Published: Tue, Apr 02, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Photography, Twist 60

In the month of April I will try to post at least a picture every day. Sometimes it will be just the image, sometimes a little story to go with it, and other times it might be a series of pictures.

Since today was a traveling day for us (visiting grandparents), I picked the above image to showcase.

This is a Fortnight Lily from my backyard that bloomed just minutes prior to this shot. I was in the backyard testing the Lensbaby Twist 60 without and with a macro filter on my flowers, and during that time the bud opened into this pretty flower. I did use the +4 macro filter for this image.

Enjoy!

Published: Sun, Mar 31, 2019

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Categories: Architecture, Blog, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Blog Circle, Photography, Photowalk, Sol 45, Twist 60, USA, Velvet 56

Towards the end of March my friend and I took a train trip into Los Angeles, and enjoyed a nice, slowly paced walk in the city for a few hours. Since we were not in a hurry whatsoever, using Lensbaby lenses was a good option. Let me share with you a few pictures of the areas we visited, which included Union Station, the City Hall (great view from the 27th floor!), the Bradbury Building, the Grand Central Market (I only ate there, no pictures), and the Disney Concert Hall. The lenses I used were: Twist 60, Sol 45 and Velvet 56.

Enjoy the brief tour of Los Angeles.

Published: Wed, Mar 27, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Photo Technique, Photography

Since last summer one of my favorite Lensbaby lenses is the Burnside 35. I found many ways of using it, and I also know what subjects it doesn’t work with – at least for me. One of the features I really like in this lens is the swirling effect that happens when I use it at a wide open aperture of F2.8. But the aperture setting is not enough for the swirling to happen, so I set out to find out what else I need for the effect to show up in my images. In my experiment I had some success, but I also found it to be somewhat flawed.

I purchased a large bouquet of sunflowers, because they looked amazing. After about an hour of arranging them in a vase, filled with beans for stability and precise placement of the stems, I had a background ready for the test pictures. I needed the flowers to spread out as much as possible in the two dimensional picture, and this took some trial and error to achieve with the three dimensional objects. I created the photographs in my dining area, where there was plenty of natural light coming in through the windows. The only light modifier I used was a large piece of foam board from Home Depot with one side covered in a silver layer. This helped with brightening the shadows on the right side of the bouquet.

I started out with photographing the bouquet with various apertures. Since these are just test shots, I did not worry much about the sides not being perfect and some stuff showing from behind the black screen.

No Subject-Darkest Aperture-No Vignette

No Subject-Darkest Aperture-Max Vignette

No Subject-Brightest Aperture-No Vignette

No Subject-Brightest Aperture-Max Vignette

Published: Sun, Mar 24, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Photography

My daughter has been participating in youth theater since she started middle school. The high school theater group performed their very high quality, really entertaining spring musical, The Addams Family a week ago. Prior to the show I attended a few rehearsals and took pictures of the young actors and actresses. Preserving memories of their hard work was my main goal, and I was also able to raise some funds for the school theater program by donating all income from the sold digital and print images. It felt great to be able to contribute to this outstanding class my daughter is so passionate about.

Here is a slideshow of some my favorite pictures of the musical rehearsals:

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Published: Fri, Mar 01, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Burnside 35, Flower Photography, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Blog Circle, Photography, USA, Velvet 56

Our family moved to Southern California in June of 2012. Since that time we only experienced the wilderness in shades of green decorated with blooming wildflowers once, two years ago. The only time this happens in the spring is when we get enough rain during the winter months. To my delight, it is happening again this spring, after a very wet winter.

I discovered a nearby area two years ago with beautiful California Poppies; last Sunday I visited the same area hoping to find similar poppy fields. I headed to the park early, I was there not long after sunrise; the park was pretty empty, I only saw one person in the parking area. I started hiking, but after a few short minutes I noticed something from the corner of my eyes. I stopped and turned my head to discover that a coyote was standing about 50-60 yards away from me.

After staring at each other for a few seconds I started walking on the path, but kept my eyes on her. She then moved, and I noticed that poor animal was limping. I really felt sorry for her and I knew that she wouldn’t be able to hurt me. She hopped away and I continued my hike to the poppy field.