Adding a little sunshine during the cold winter months

This image was made with the Lensbaby Composer and 50mm double-glass element at f2.8 with an Olympus EM10. My goal was to get an image to establish the general scene. From this image, I began to move in closer and closer to create more of abstract images working with soft, delicate lines and colours.

Lensbaby takes creative flower photography to new heights

Winter has set in and taken a firm hold of the garden, but that’s no reason not to let the sunshine in.

This week I decided to pick up a bouquet of flowers so I could get back to one of my favourite pastimes – photographing flowers. Rather than shooting in the garden, I brought a little of the garden into the kitchen where a large bay window allows a lovely soft light to bathe the flowers.

Even if you have no intention of photographing the flowers, it’s never a bad idea to bring a little sunshine into our homes during the long days of winter. We could all benefit from a little happiness these days.

It turned out to be the perfect opportunity to put a few Lensbaby lenses to good use. The following images are a little taste of my morning with a trio of Lensbaby lenses.

Moving in a little closer with the Lensbaby composer creates a delicate, soft-focus image with a very graphic element to it. Perfect focus can be difficult with Lensbabies, especially in the more wide-open aperatures such as f2.8.

Getting creative with a trio of Lensbaby lenses

If you are not familiar with Lensbaby lenses, they are specially designed lenses aimed at encouraging photographers to have a little fun by adding a more creative element to their images, mostly in the form of selective and soft focus.

Unlike traditional lenses, the goal is not to attaina perfectly sharp, sterile image.

This image was taken with the Lensbaby Velvet56 on a Lumix GF7. The Velvet series of lenses are able to focus very closely making them ideal for flower photography. The Velvet series of lenses create a dreamy, more ethereal look that sports a sharp centre and soft, glowing halo around subjects. Some would say they have a vintage look to them and are ideal for flower photography and portraits. Stopped down a little at F4-8 and beyond reduces the soft-focus effect and makes them ideal for landscape images with a dreamy look.

One Youtuber describes experimenting with Lensbabies like sitting at the high school lunch table with all the artsy students complete with body piercings, vintage clothing and “interesting hair colour.” Now, while I can’t say that would describe me in high school, it sure sounds like hanging out with them would be a lot more fun than talking calculus.

Nothing wrong with perfectly sharp, perfect sterile images, but, when it comes to creative flower photography, sharp and sterile just doesn’t make the grade.

This image was made with the Lensbaby 2.0 at F2.8 on a Pentax K5 camera. Two Lensbaby macro filters – the 4X and 10X – were added to allow the extreme closeup.

For these images, I used a combination of a Lensbaby 2.0 with a double-glass element 50mm lens, a Lensbaby Velvet56, and a Lensbaby Composer with a double-glass element 50mm. In addition, I used Lensbaby’s 4X and 10X macro filters to move in extremely close for some images. The macro filters can be stacked for even closer views.

All Lensbaby lenses are manual focus and do not have electrical contacts to communicate with your camera body. As a result, settings on many cameras need to be adjusted to work with these lenses. I usually use them on aperture priority and use the +/- compensation adjustment for fine tuning the correct exposure.

There are several other Lensbaby lenses available that create a variety of different effects.

This image was made with the Velvet 56 at around F4.

For more information on Lensbaby lenses, go to the Lensbaby website here.

Here is an Amazon link to Lensbaby lenses for those interested in pursuing this very fun and rewarding form of photography.

While Lensbaby lenses can be used for any type of photography including portraiture, street photography and landscapes, they really shine when it comes to capturing soft, delicate and impressionistic images of flowers.

Capturing the flower petals in a lovely soft light with the Velvet56. The Velvet series of lenses, which include a 28mm wide angle lens, look more like traditional lenses rather than the more unique looking Muse, Composer and Spark designs.

These images are just a few examples of my recent morning with a trio of Lensbabies and a handful of flowers on a cold winter morning.

Moving in close to explore the details of a flower using the Lensbaby macro filters takes the image more into the realm of abstract. I focussed on the lines leading into the inner flower petals for this abstract image.

Again, moving in close and having fun using shapes, lines and colours helps to free your mind from trying to capture a sharp, traditional image of a flower.

In the world of Lensbabies, sharpness and realism is certainly overrated. Exploring visually opens up a whole new world and creates a sense of freedom in your photography.

Small changes in perspective can take your images to a whole new level. This image, along with the one below are similar but different and allow small movements within the lens (not the camera) to change the look of the image as well as the focus.

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