Lensbaby Sweet 35 with macro converters
Reflections 2014
The beginning of the year topic for my Daily Challenge group on Flickr was to pick a favorite photo from each month of 2014. I went through my Lightroom catalog quickly, pretty much relying on gut instinct. I was surprised by a couple things when doing this exercise:
1. I didn’t expect to find so many still life photos among my favorites. And I was surprised to find so few black and whites. There aren’t many landscapes- not really surprised by that.
2. Creativity and productivity seem to ebb and flow. It was hard to even find a favorite for some months, and in other months I could easily find several. I need to remember this when I’m feeling uninspired!
My BeStill 52 group’s challenge for last week was to pick my favorite still life photos of the year (no number specified). I again chose quickly, relying on instinct, and came up with 14, which I arranged in a slideshow. You may notice that some of the images were chosen for both assignments.
Snapshots of Snow
Maybe when we have lived here a while and have experienced a winter with many days of heavy snow, I will lose my excitement about snow. But for now, I just can’t get over looking out the window and seeing WHITE!
We still have snow on the ground- and it’s very COLD, but over the next few days it will disappear. All the photos below were taken December 31- with the Lensbaby, except for the hawk one and the view of houses from our driveway, which were taken with my husband’s Canon Powershot.
We enjoyed seeing this classic taxi (above)picking up someone who didn’t want to drive in the snow.
Below is a view out the window while I waited in the car for my husband, who had run into the grocery store.
It was snowing hard as I watched this young man scraping the ice off his windows as I watched through the window of my warm car. 
Happy, Snowy New Year!!!
Yes- S N O W Y ! ! ! It started snowing early Wednesday morning. We awoke to a beautiful blanket of snow, totally transforming the landscape, and it snowed HARD until early afternoon. We decided to drive downtown- and oh my!- the roads were covered, the snowplows were out, and many motorists were stuck in drifts. We were out for a little over an hour, and during that time, the snowflakes fell thick and fast, covering our roads, including the road up our hill. We had no problems, however, and I managed to take lots of photos (mostly through the windshield) with my Lensbaby Edge 80. Here are a few of my favorites.
As 2014 was drawing to a close, I started thinking about 2015 and what my intentions are for the year. I used to make resolutions, which often seemed to set me up for failure. I like the idea of choosing just one word to aim for and use as a sort of mantra, so I’m doing that again this year.
This year my word is . . .
Joy within myself.
Joy with my family.
Joy in all my relationships.
Joy in my creative life.
Joy in as many moments each day as I can fit in!
By the way, I am starting year FIVE of my blog. I had no idea I would be posting to it for this long, but it has become part of my life. And I will continue it, as long as it brings me JOY!
Thank you for being a big part of my 2014! I appreciate your kind comments on my photography (on my blog and in REAL life too)!
Best wishes to you for a Happy and JOYFUL 2015!
Lensbaby Lights
Happy New Year!!!
I took my camera with my Lensbaby Sweet 35 down to the square last night to see what the Christmas lights looked like when shot Lensbaby-style. Be prepared to get a little dizzy! The exploding Christmas tree look is not my favorite Lensbaby style, but it was fascinating to see what the different tilts did to the lights.
And check out the shape of some of the bokeh below- whoa!
My biggest Lensbaby challenge is removing the optics. I kept thinking I was doing it incorrectly- but no. The problem is with hand strength. My husband can remove them easily; I cannot. So I guess his photo assistant role has just grown- good thing he’s retiring! Despite this issue, I am REALLY enjoying the Lensbaby! I have played with all the optics and haven’t picked a favorite yet. Each has its strengths and challenges. I think my favorite might be the Edge 80, except that the focal length makes it so “tight” on my crop sensor camera. I have taken a zillion photos with each optic and know I have a lot to learn. An instant hit with me though is the macro converters- I love them! Easy to use with creamy bokeh- LOVE!
Best wishes for a Happy 2015!!!
Winter Dreams
This is one of my first images using my brand new (drum roll, please!) Lensbaby for my Nikon!!! Santa was very good to me this year- he brought me the Lensbaby Composer Pro System kit, which includes the Sweet 35, the Sweet 50, and the Edge 80 optics- and a couple macro converters. The Sweet 35 was attached to the Composer Pro, so that’s what I used for all my photos (I actually haven’t learned how to swap optics as yet). There is quite a learning curve with Lensbaby- more than a few of the photos I shot were completely out of focus- but I knew to expect that.
The above image DOES have a sweet spot of focus in the tree, blurring off into the clouds. I decided to convert it to black and white and texture it in Photoshop.
I am beyond excited to have these new toys to play with on my camera!
BTW, I’m taking a bit of a blog break- more of a long weekend, actually- to play with my Lensbaby and, more importantly, spend time with my family. I’ll be back Tuesday or Wednesday. See you then!
Merry Christmas!
Christmas Eve Sweet Dreams
May your Christmas be merry and bright!
Christmas Simple
I took the above photos in response to a new BeStill 52 assignment, which was a replay of the previous one- backlight, window, chair. I went for a pretty minimal composition- and not very Christmas-y, I guess. Sometimes, I just like things simple!
Christmas Cactus 2
Beauty in what remains
Christmas Cactus
What to photograph on a gloomy, gray, drizzly day? Macros of bright Christmas cactus blooms!
Both images are edited with textures from Florabella. The top also has an oil paint filter added from within Photoshop.
Christmas Details
I held off posting this today, because we were supposed to get 3-5 inches of snow last night and today- a perfect photo opportunity. Unfortunately, all we’ve had is rain.
So here are some Christmas details- pinecones on a chair, a tree ornament, and. . . two photos of one of two little ceramic birds on a beautiful ceramic plate/tray, made by the talented Debbie!
A Chair by the Door
The latest assignment in BeStill 52 was to shoot a backlit image of a chair in front of a window. I was stymied at first, because our windows are all tinted here to protect us from the Arizona sun, creating a difficult lighting situation for photography. Then I remembered the frosted front door window, which has un-frosted portions, letting in a bit of natural light.
Both images are textured with Kim Klassen’s anna texture for Texture Tuesday.
Acker Night
Friday night was Acker Night in Prescott, when most of the downtown businesses- restaurants, bars, shops, banks etc.- host musical acts to benefit music programs in town. It went on for blocks, and I have never seen such huge crowds downtown. We only managed to see a few blocks worth of entertainment during our walk around town with our friends, Debbie and Dale, but it made for a fun evening. Below are a few of the acts we enjoyed.
The group below was probably the most fun performance, and this photo is the only one I have of these guys not looking straight into the camera. I discovered that, in a small space, it is just about impossible to be unobtrusive with a camera- even though I was surrounded by iPhoneographers. I only brought my 50mm lens, which was a mistake. I chose it because of its sharpness and low-light capabilities, but found that the focal length on my crop sensor camera made it difficult in tight quarters (next year, I’ll use my 35mm).
I couldn’t resist taking a shot of Dale in his hat- it really suits him!
I loved this old truck we saw along the way.
And eventually it was time to say good-bye to the lights of downtown Prescott and head home.
Editing notes for the curious:
The layout of 4 photos in the beginning were all editing experiments in Lightroom using the Fader plug-in I downloaded a month or so ago and promptly forgot about. If you have a lot of presets like I do, you might enjoy this handy little plug-in. Basically, when you want to use a preset, you choose it from within the Fader and then have the ability to reduce the opacity of the effect, like you would in Photoshop. I normally tweak presets myself, but this gives me the ability to dial it up or down while looking at the results- very cool. What I don’t like about it is FINDING the plug-in in the menu in Lightroom- it’s not hidden, just inconvenient. I wish Lightroom gave you the option to assign keystrokes to an item on the menu- or does it?
The photo of the country band was edited using my trial version of Topaz Impression (which unfortunately expired yesterday)- textures added in Photoshop. The photos of Dale and the truck with the Santa hat also have added textures. The textures were from Kerstin Frank, Shadowhouse Creations, and Kim Klassen.
melinda anderson photography 