Through the Lensbaby | August

This month I signed up for my first ever CM Breakout Session, “Lensbaby Love: The Basics and Beyond”. I got my Lensbaby last year and have been practicing like crazy, but there were still things I wanted to learn. So when this breakout was announced, I decided to finally try one. It was such fun, and absolutely inspiring to try new techniques! I worked (mostly) with still subjects this month—manually focusing on moving subjects is still tricky for me and my old eyes…

I also tried out Alien Skin’s Snap Art. It’s not an effect I’d use too often, I don’t think, but it’s really fun to play with a more painterly look on some images!

I love flare in my work, and I’m trying really hard to master it with the Lensbaby too, though I admit it’s still elusive to me. But I’ll keep working on it…

This was a creative aperture ring that I got for Christmas. Another effect that I don’t often play around with (I tend to be more of a purist when it comes to my own work), but still fun once in a while!

This was my first shot with the Edge 80. Gracie avoids looking into the camera at all costs, but at least she stayed still for a moment. You can see the diagonal slice of focus from the fur above her nose and extending down through her eye and cheek. I am still having trouble predicting the slice of focus as I move the lens around, but I will get there!

This month was also bad for my wallet, as I ended up being so inspired that I purchased a few more optics for my Composer Pro—the Edge 80, the soft focus, and the macro extension tubes. So far I love the tubes—not much of a learning curve there. The Edge 80 is going to be wonderful, though it is more different from the others than I had expected, so there will definitely be a learning curve for me with regards to understanding where the sharp plane of focus will fall when I tilt the lens. And though I really love the look of the soft focus optic in other photographers’ work, I have yet to take an image with it that I am happy with. I think it will be a matter of finding an appropriate subject in the right light. I am determined!

To see more Lensbaby images, please continue our little circle to see the gorgeous work of my friend Jude; her work never ceases to amaze me!