It's My Nature » Lensbaby Composer

Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia, PA)

Ed — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:22:28 +0000

After spending a couple of early morning hours photographing the vibrant colors of the Graffiti Underground, our workshop groups headed over to Eastern State Penitentiary where we would spend the rest of the day. The penitentiary itself has been closed since 1971 and in many areas there are now nearly 40 years worth of dust, dirt and decay. It has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and a very dedicated team is working hard to save the facility. Tours are given daily in season. Fortunately, our workshop group was allowed to photograph behind the scenes as well as in the public areas.

Every pixel of vibrant color from the Graffiti Underground was replaced by drab, dull earth tones in the prison. I couldn’t help but think about the isolation and desolation one must experience when incarcerated in a place like Eastern State Penitentiary. It is that feeling of isolation and desolation that I tried to capture in my images. Here are several examples.

“The End of the Road”

“The Invisible People”

“A Place in the Sun”

“The Red Barber’s Chair”

Fun with the Fisheye

Ed — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:53:13 +0000

I thought I would post a few of the images from last weekend before heading out on this weekend’s big adventure. In the upcoming year, my plans are to offer workshops and tours in various locations throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic areas… places like Delaware Water Gap (PA), Sandy Hook (NJ) and Acadia National Park (ME). But even though I will be leading these workshops, I still believe in learning as a life-long process so I continue to take workshops in hopes of continually honing my skills. So I leave in a couple of hours for a weekend HDR workshop with Tony Sweet at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. Followers of this blog know that I already do a lot of HDR photography. Here’s hoping I can come out of this weekend just a little bit better. As I would want you to do if you take one of my workshops/tours.

But back to last weekend. Sunday was a very dreary, overcast, rainy day. So plans to head to the Water Gap were postponed. Instead, I took advantage of the brief windows between the raindrops to cruise about my local area (Bethlehem, PA) and make some images using my Lensbaby Composer with the Fisheye Optic. There is nothing too serious here. Just trying to have some fun between the raindrops.

“The Artist Reflecting on the Artist”

“O”

“Get a Handle!”

“Railing Against Boredom”

Scouting Out a Workshop Location – Sandy Hook, NJ

Ed — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:55:47 +0000

My familiarity with the Sandy Hook, NJ portion of Gateway National Recreational Area goes back probably a decade. It started with an interest in lighthouses that my wife and I share and a visit to the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. Originally built in 1764, Sandy Hook is the oldest lighthouse still in existence in America.

As time passed and Barb became more interested in birding and I in bird photography, we would visit Sandy Hook regularly usually between the months of October and April for shorebirds, migratory birds and wintering ducks. We haunt the Jersey shore after the sun worshippers leave and before they return.

The more I visited Sandy Hook and the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that Sandy Hook would be a great location for one of my “Creativity, Composition and the Camera” photography workshops. But before I made a definitive decision to hold a workshop there, I needed to scout it out for more and different shooting opportunities. That was the purpose of yesterday’s visit to Sandy Hook. Yep no time like the Fourth of July weekend for a trip to the Jersey shore – Barb, me and about a million other folks! Still we had a very productive time on this narrow spit of land.

One of the subjects I want to focus a session on is lighthouses. Notice I said plural – lighthouses. There are two that I definitely want to include, Sandy Hook, of course, and Twin Lights (aka Navesink) in Highlands just outside Sandy Hook. Another session will be devoted to photographing the ruins of Fort Hancock, a decommissioned Army base with some very interesting old mortar batteries and such. And then, of course, there is the beach for sunrise and the back bay for sunset. And yes, even birds and flowers. All in all an excellent location for a workshop with more than enough to keep us busy for three days.

If you think you may be interested in this workshop, drop me a note at ed@itsmynaturephotography.com so I can be sure to keep you up-to-date as plans firm up. I am planning the workshop for sometime in the April/May 2011 timeframe. Exact dates, cost, lodging arrangements, workshop features, etc. will be posted when available but probably not before mid-October of this year. I am just asking for an indication of interest. Neither you nor I are locking in to anything at this time.

As you think, here are a few images from yesterday. And yes, I was working some of the time with my Lensbaby Composer with the fisheye optic. Most of the images are multi-image HDR composites in order to cover the dynamic range from the deep shadows to the blazing summertime sky.

Sandy Hook Lighthouse (as seen from the Mortar Battery; HDR)

Sandy Hook Lighthouse (Fisheye HDR)

Mortar Battery (Fisheye HDR)

Mortar Battery (with 21st Century Hieroglyphics; HDR)

Battery Potter

Hope you enjoyed the images and hope you will think about joining me on this Spring 2011 workshop at Sandy Hook, NJ.

Shooting Soft with the Lensbaby Soft Focus Optic

Ed — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:15:21 +0000

I’m sure many of you visiting my website and blog are already familiar with the Lensbaby lenses and their interchangeable optic system and accessories packages.Likewise I am also sure that there are some of you who are not familiar with the lens. For those of you who aren’t, the Lensbaby is a selective focus lens with a focal length of 50mm. In it’s most basic form, the selective focus sweet spot can be moved around the focal plane by simply “bending” the lens. Yes, the lens actual can be bent to the left, to the right, up, down and anywhere in between. It really gives the photographer an opportunity to play around, be creative and try some new things. Yes, it is fun to play with the Lensbaby but it is not a toy. Interchangeable optics include double glass (the highest quality), single glass, plastic (think Holga toy camera), fisheye, soft focus, wide angle and I know I have missed a few. Accessories include, among other things, a set of macro lenses that can be added to other Lensbaby optics except for the fisheye. For more information on the Lensbaby, visit their website at www.lensbaby.com.

There is so much you can do with the Lensbaby. I happen to use the Lensbaby Composer with the double glass optic quite often. Sometimes I like to add a macro lens to it. And I really love the vignetting one gets with the fisheye optic particularly when used with a full frame camera like my Canon 5D Mark II. But of all the optional optics, I have found the soft focus optic the most difficult for me to come to terms with. I will use it and then end up doing things, almost unconsciously, in processing to try to bring the sharpness back into the image instead of just going with the flow and basking in the softness. So I often tend to shy away from using the soft focus optic. But every so often, I force myself to leave everything else behind and use it. That’s what I did this past weekend.

MY local club, the Lehigh Valley Photography Club, held a group photo shoot at Jacobsburg State Park (PA). I had just done some straight macro shooting in the meadows there the week before so I decided the time was right to go out there with just my Canon 50D and the Lensbaby Composer w/ Soft Focus optic.

Here are a couple of images, soft as they should be, from this past Saturday’s shoot.

“Daylily”

“Meadow of Yellow”

Sunrise/Sunset Over the Lake (Part 2 – Sunset)

Ed — Wed, 19 May 2010 09:46:57 +0000

This is the follow-up to my previous post highlighting the sunrise images from the weekend.

This first sunset image is one that I had been thinking about all week. I knew what I wanted to do or at least try. I wanted to make sunset (and sunrise) images using the Lensbaby with the Fisheye optic. I just thought it would create a very interesting effect. I thought about it on my drives into work in the morning and on my drives home in the evening. I thought about it during the day. I keep trying different things in my mind. What would work? How would it look? Why? Why not? In the next day or two I will post a more detailed description of the process I went through leading up to making this image on my second blog - “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary!” (see the link in the right-hand column)

Friday was my first chance to get out and put all my thoughts into practice. I didn’t get as much color in the sky as I had hoped but getting the fog on the water was a real bonus. Here is the result.

The next evening, Saturday, I returned to the same location and decided to try another, more traditional approach capturing “The Farm Across the Lake” which is just to the right of the view captured in the fisheye. I particularly like the reflections on the water in this image.

Hope you enjoy viewing these images as much as I enjoyed making them.

Sunrise/Sunset Over the Lake (Part 1 – Sunrise)

Ed — Mon, 17 May 2010 01:25:42 +0000

This has been quite the crazy weekend. Nothing really went as planned and yet as I sit here on Sunday evening, everything appears to be ending well. And for that I am thankful.

Virtually all my photography this weekend involved very short jaunts (it’s about a 20-25 minute drive) to a local lake (Lake Nockamixon in Nockamixon State Park, Bucks County, PA) for either sunrise or sunset. I caught sunset Friday and Saturday nights and sunrise this morning. Sunsets were not as dramatic as I would have liked but sunrise this morning was spectacular. So I will start with the sunrise images.

Both sunrise images are 5-image HDRs but that is where the similarity ends. The first image was made with my Canon 5DMk2 and the Lensbaby Composer with the Fisheye Optic. Using the fisheye optic with a full frame camera like the 5DMk2 results in an image surrounded by a wonderful circular vignette. (NOTE: On a crop camera like the 50D, for example, the vignetting will only appear in the corners – not near as dramatic.) Here is the fisheye sunrise over Lake Nockamixon as taken from the marina.

The second sunrise image was made just nine minutes later from precisely the same spot. The tripod did not more. But everything else changed. I swapped out the 5DMk2 and Lensbaby Composer w/ Fisheye Optic for the Canon 50D and 70-200 2.8L IS lens. With the lens at 70mm I was able to focus in on just that part of the sky and water with most color. The result was the following image which I have entitled “Fire in the Sky”.

Two very different views of sunrise shot just minutes apart. I like them both and hope you do as well.

Fisheye Madness

Ed — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:54:18 +0000

As I said in my previous post, I took only my Lensbaby Composer with accessories on my visit to Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA) this past Monday. The Hibiscus images presented in my prior post were made with the Lensbaby with Soft Focus Optic and Macro lens. I now turn to several images made with the Lensbaby Composer with the Fisheye Optic.

When the Lensbaby Fisheye is attached to a full frame camera like the Canon 5D Mark II, it produces a wonderful, vignetted circular image.

“Going with the Flow” is a single image shot at f/16 to slow the shutter speed and smooth the water. This particular little indoor waterfalls is one of the places I seem to migrate to on every trip to Longwood.

“Inside the Bubble #1″ and “Inside the Bubble #2″ are both 5-image HDR composites shot with the Fisheye Optic. Notice the storm clouds overhead in #1.

Hope you enjoy the images.

Longwood Gardens Hibiscus

Ed — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:45:19 +0000

I spent most of the day Monday photographing with an out-of-state, online friend inside the conservatory (it was pouring outside) at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. Having been there several times already this year, I decided to challenge myself by only bringing a single lens – the Lensbaby. (I hear some groans out there. :-) ) I did provide myself with some leeway by including the Lensbaby Macro Kit, Soft Focus Optic and Fisheye Optic. So I did have some choices to make. I am pleased to say that I used all three and by the time the day was done, I felt much more comfortable with the Lensbaby. As I said elsewhere, I felt I had become one with the lens.

The Hibiscus images below were made using my Canon 5D Mark II and the Lensbaby Composer with the Soft Focus Optic and the +4 Macro filter/lens. Hope you enjoy them.

The first is a beautiful red/purple Hibiscus but I forgot to jot down the name.

I call this second image “The Age of Aquarius” since the Hibiscus is named Fifth Dimension.

Longwood Gardens – Lensbaby Soft Focus – Orchids

Ed — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:45:56 +0000

Not a whole lot to say here. Most of the morning, I carried two cameras ready to go. One was the 50D with the 24-70 and the other was the 30D with the Lensbaby. I added the soft focus optic for this image. Processing was done with Nik filters – Viveza 2 to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and structure; Glamour Glow filter in Color Efex Pro; and then, at the last second, I decide to add a bit of sharpening with Sharpener Pro. The sharpening added more detail to the petals while leaving the halos characteristic of the soft focus optic intact. I kinda liked the result.

Winter Teasel

Ed — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:31 +0000

I really like Teasel throughout all the seasons. This is an image I shot on the fly this past weekend and had/has a background that I really don’t like. Actually, I can say that I hated the background on the original image. So with nothing else to do when I got back home, I started to play with the image in an effort to compensate for the very busy and distracting background. I played with different crops; different size, color and opacity vignettes; and different filters in Color Efex Pro and Viveza2. Everything I did, and I did a lot, was designed to soften the background. The actual Teasel was pretty much just sharpened a bit and left go.

Ultimately, I ended up with this image. I don’t hate the background any longer even though I still don’t like it. And I do think the image now works. Do you?

Canon 30D and Lensbaby Composer, handheld.

1/1000 sec @ f/8.0; ISO 400; 0 EV