Wacky Lights

I have not had a lot of opportunity to use the Lensbaby but when I have it has always given me very interesting images. My wife wanted a picture of the Christmas tree and I was glad to shoot it. Especially when I truly believe it is the best tree we have ever decorated in all the years we have been married. Ok she and my son and daughter decorated it. In this image the f/2.8 aperture ring was used.

So with the Lensbaby shot in the bag I thought I would turn to a different effect. That being using a zoom lens to bring in some creativity in camera. The camera is a Canon 40D and the lens used was an EF 24-105 f/4L IS USM.

105 pull to 24 mm

24 push to 105 mm

Personally I like the second shot at it does not necessarily look like anything that you may expect it to be. It could be rotated 90 degrees and work just the same. Both are very cool though. I had the camera mounted on a tripod with a 2 second shutter release. The shutter speed was 13 seconds with an aperture of f/18.

Ok, so after all the wizz-bang images I thought I would be remiss if I didn't put my wife's beautiful tree on the post, so here it is.

The angel on top of the tree did not have any light and was really dark so I employed a "D"-cell Mag-Lite. Illuminating the angel took a couple of frames to get it down. Finally the Mag-Lite illumination took only 5 or 6 seconds.

Hey all, it's time to blast off today. Take care... Doug

Lensbaby... Oh Baby!

Click image  for a larger view

Diversity is a wonderful teacher. This post is a case in point. The Blogger software has a new interface that is a little more "Windows"-ish. Improved functionality with images was a big plus in the new interface. The ability to upload many images and drop them in as you need them is wonderful. The fallacy here is upload. It is conditional, if you close the session Blogger dumps what you have not placed in a post.

This morning I uploaded two shots , leaving one in the "upload" que (or so I thought) and one placed in the post. I am now writing the post sitting here in Cincinnati, OH and the que is empty. Ok lesson learned. It was kind of a sucky shot with the Lensbaby anyway.

That sounds like a segue to the real post. Sunday night I was shooting a College & Career group at church called the Gathering. They have mad some changes in their meeting place. Stage, raised ceiling, stage lighting and some other improvements. I was interested in shooting with the new lighting as the previous was just about non-existent. I used three difference lenses for the shoot, an EF 16-35 f/2.8L USM, the EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM for longer shots and I took some time to experiment with the Lensbaby Composer.

I have not had a chance (ok, I probably have but have not taken advantage of it) to do much shooting with the Composer but when I have it had been totally fun shooting.

The opening image is untouched and one of the better shots I have taken in the limited time shooting with the Lensbaby. Using it is pulled on your creativity strings. You want to try something else with it. I caught myself spinning the exposure composition on the 5D Mk II and finally realized. (Duh!) Manual... All manual. You do have shutter-speed control but that kind of doesn't work so well when you have the camera set to Aperture priority. Set to manual all things work well. To adjust aperture, there are little plates that drop into the Composer to change the setting. There are eight of them ranging from f/2 to f/22.

Getting used to the Composer takes a little practice. You do not have a fixed focus point and it is manual focus so make sure you camera diopter is set accurately. I must admit that I have not taken the time to do the in depth diopter adjustment technique. There is no AF to fall back on so set it right before you go Lensbabying. Unless you have the lens pointed directly towards the front, you have to get a hang to where the focus point is. Like I say, practice!

That last thing I am going to say about the Lensbaby Composer is that it looks a little funky hanging on the front of the 5D Mk II but is sure is fun. It is definitely a conversation piece.

Take care... Doug