I think I might be finished with the One Thing challenge for BeStill52 and The Studio, but no promises. . .
A couple Lensbaby shots:
Top down with my 35mm 1.8:
Also with my 35mm 1.8, softened with a couple of Kim Klassen textures (linking up with Texture Tuesday today):
We were challenged to photograph one thing, shot different ways, different days, with different props in both BeStill and the Studio. I decided to use my blue lantern, which my son gave me for Christmas. I’ve done a couple different photo shoots and plan on doing more this week. All of these were taken with my Lensbaby and Sweet 35. The top one has a couple textures added.
My photography goal for April is to practice with my Lensbaby every day. We’ve been out in the backyard the last couple days, so the Lensbaby came out with me yesterday.
The fountain is up and running again. Is it just me, or does this look like a lady juggling?
Here is a macro of photinia leaves- with some added texture.
And here is the same basic shot, edited with a black and white preset. Notice how the lensbaby blur shows up in the black and white- interesting!
These were all taken with the Sweet 50 optic, macro converters added in the last two.
One of the highlights of our trip to San Diego was Point Loma, an area we had never visited before- and we certainly plan to return. In fact, we visited it twice this trip! There is a spectacular view of San Diego, tidepools, trails, and a view of the ocean that goes on forever. And there are TWO lighthouses- the current one operated by the Coast Guard, and the historic one, built in 1855. The old lighthouse was only operational for 36 years, because its beacon was often obscured by fog. The newer lighthouse sits much closer to the water for better visibility.
Today’s photos are of the historic lighthouse- 3 views, 3 styles.
I love the soft and dreamy Lensbaby look for flowers. I was missing my Lensbaby this week, so I spent a few hours playing with some flower macros I took when my Nikon was still functioning.
I love black and white- even for flowers- so had some fun editing this image 3 ways. I created a preset a few months after I started with Lightroom. It’s kind of a dramatic, over the top black and white with some tones applied that I first used on a photo of the Clocktower in Benicia. Although it doesn’t work well with most images, I still find uses for it occasionally. For this daisy photo, I first applied the preset at 87% (using the Fader plug-in). The second shot has the same preset applied, but its effect is reduced way down. The third photo is edited the same as the second, but has a texture added at low opacity.
One of the things I love about Lensbaby macro images is that they have that soft, painterly look without adding texture.
But, often I feel that a texture adds to the look I want, as in the image below.
Have a great weekend!
I’m missing my camera! I admire those iPhone artists that ONLY take photos with their phone cameras and create masterpieces. I enjoy taking photos with my phone- and have a lot of fun editing them- but I miss the shallow depth of field and beloved blur that I can get with my DSLR (especially with my Lensbaby optics). I am keeping my fingers crossed that my camera is fixed before we head to San Diego.
These photos were taken on a walk last week. When I got home I noticed most of the photos had a greenish cast. The photos I took in square format were fine- as were those I took with the VSCO camera app. And, no matter what, I could not remove the color cast in apps on the phone or in Lightroom. It took a few days for the lightbulb to come on- I had inadvertently clicked on one of the color settings in the iPhone camera app (but not when it was set to square format), so all those photos were green. Oh. I rescued them by converting them to black and white.
I must admit that flowers are still my favorite photography subject. I wish I had a green thumb and could grow them as well!
The roses below were textured with Kim Klassen’s kk_anna texture.
And here almost the same shot converted to black and white (no texture applied).
This is a closer view of the flowers edited using Kim’s kk_likeadream preset in Lightroom.
All photos were taken using the Lensbaby.
Linking up with Texture Tuesday today.
Here are a couple images from my still-life shoot the other day. These are the same photo with a black and white conversion, except that the second one has a slight bit of pinkish split toning. I printed them both, and it is really hard to tell the difference!
The sun came out for awhile last weekend, but it was still cold as I ventured out to my studio (AKA garage) for a photo session. I opened the garage door for natural light, set what was left of my latest Trader Joe’s bouquet on some bead board, and had fun with my Edge 80 for as long as I could stand the cold. I tilted the lens down and to the left, focusing on the scissors for this shot. I liked the result and added texture to the image for Texture Tuesday.
And here is the same photo with a black and white conversion.
Happy Tuesday!
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!
A year ago last summer, when we were looking for houses to buy, my friend, Debbie, noticed a listing on the internet for the perfect house (which we did end up buying), but the Google map for the neighborhood was confusing- there were two consecutive streets with the same name. Which street was the one with the house for sale? From time to time, I noticed that Google glitch on the map- and last week decided to let them know their map was wrong.
I guess it’s not an uncommon thing for Google to make mistakes, because there is actually a form to fill out when you spot an error. I compared their map with the satellite image and discovered that several little streets off the thru street were labelled incorrectly. The error started when they misidentified a driveway as a street- and then got off for the next four streets ending up with an extra street, which they named the same as ours. I filled out the form, and they responded that they would look into it.
Less than a week later, they wrote me an email saying “You were right!”, and that they had corrected the problem. I checked the map and discovered that they had now correctly named the street before ours with its correct name- but had left that name on the street before that one and continued the incorrect sequence (including labeling the driveway as a street). Aaack!
So, on Saturday I walked the neighborhood taking photos of houses, streets, and signs to make sure I was accurate- and wrote them again. I haven’t heard anything back yet.
I took my husband’s new Canon Powershot SX50 with me on the walk. I’m trying to learn it, because its zoom has a fantastic reach (and it shoots RAW!), and I plan to use it for wildlife photography. I’ve already customized 3 buttons on it with my settings, so I won’t interfere with his AUTO settings. All of today’s photos were taken with this nifty camera. For me, the most difficult part is controlling the zoom- so I need to practice on some backyard birds.
Here are some more views of one of the basic layouts I used in the second top-down photo from yesterday. But today they do not meet the square, top-down, and two sides requirement.
Because I am such a fan of black and white photography, I just had to edit some of my Utah photos in black and white.
Somewhere south of Moab (cannot remember the name of this arch):
And here is Monument Valley:
No, it’s not the moon- just lens flare- but I love the effect.
kk_chill texture added
Linking up with Texture Tuesday today.
Our house sits on a hill on a half-acre wedge-ish shaped lot with the most of the backyard on a steep slope, covered with rocks to keep the hill intact. There is a rickety stairway going up the hill on one side to an unlandscaped area that is mostly, um, weeds. We had the weeds cut down this summer, and this week I finally ventured all the way to the top of our property! Before, I had been concerned about what might be living in those weeds and didn’t really want to walk through them, chicken that I am.
At the top, I could stand at the edge of our uphill neighbor’s property and enjoy the view over our house to the hills and also see our neighbor’s fields at the top of the hill. Pretty!
BTW, I did play with the color in the bottom photo; the fields are actually pretty green. Artistic license!
I’m linking up with Friday Finds today.
melinda anderson photography 