Category: Lensbaby

Day 93 – Sand Dollar

SandDollar2

So, this started out as an experiment that took on the life of the Energizer Bunny. It all started because when I bought the Omni filter system I had envisioned being able to use it with my Lensbaby lenses. But no, in their infinite wisdom Lensbaby included step down lenses with the device but none that fit their standard filter size. No worries, B&H had what I needed to get the job done. So this was my first attempt to mesh the Omni with the Velvet 56. I used two filter wands, one that gives a stretching effect and the rainbow wand. The sand dollar was sitting on the window sill of my studio. The sun is bright and it came out a little over exposed. But I persevered. It has a high pass filter, several vibrance and saturation layers, at least two textures, and several trips though Topaz software, most of which were aborted. Bottom line, I’m still not very happy with it but I am tired of playing with it. I can see that the Omni has a lot of potential for creative effects but it is a bit of a three ring circus trying to focus the lens, adjust the filters, etc, etc. The good news is there is a whole set of new Omni tools coming out and my name is on the list. I don’t think they will get here before the 100 days is over but more fun on the horizon.

Day 92 – Saxophone

Saxophone

Well, thank goodness there are only 8 more days in this project. I had my second day of training at the genealogy library today and totally spaced out doing an image for today. That is until I was just getting snuggled into bed. So, I randomly dipped into the archives and ran across some images captured with the Trio 28 back in September at an antiques show. I thought this sax might look good in black and white and, oh yes, I think it does. Besides the conversion I just added a high pass filter to bring out more of the detail on the bell of the sax. Now, I can go back to bed.

Day 91 – Iron Mike

IronMike

We’re mighty proud of the Pioneer statue that graces the Ashland Plaza. I have to admit that growing up I was more aware of the fountain than the statue, maybe because he was up there so high…. or maybe because it produced pure clear water you could use to rinse out your mouth after sampling the Lithia water fountain nearby.. or maybe because, as far as I know, he hadn’t been named yet. In any case, I took his picture with a background of autumn leaves a couple of weeks ago using the Sweet50. It lacked a certain something so I cropped it quite a bit as I had to stand back away to get the right perspective with that 50 mm lens. I added a high pass filter to give Mike a little more definition and I bumped up the exposure and vibrance and saturation. But it wasn’t until I put the texture on that I decided it would pass as a work of art. Even though the color is a bit off from reality I like the blur in the bottom of the image which is transformed into a grungy look by the texture. 

Day 90 – Leaf with Ice

LeafwIce

It’s a good thing I got extra pictures yesterday because the wind is fierce out there today. The tree outside my window reminds me of the whomping willow. But this image is interesting because the leaf has an icicle on it. I think someone must have forgotten to turn off the sprinkler system because I can’t think how else the water got on the leaves as it hasn’t rained in some time. This was taken with the Burnside and I like that I captured the swirly bokah which is one of the Burnside’s characteristics and also was able to take advantage of it’s close focusing distance. The hard part was finding a leaf that was not way over my head. In post I opened up the shadows and toned down the highlights. Also added a high pass filter which really helped define the leaf. 

Day 89 – Fire

Fire

And now for something completely different…. I was out for a camera walk with the Burnside mounted on the R. Still finding some great fall color, when some fire engines pulled up around this piece of road equipment on fire. I like the backlighting on this and the silhouette of the fireman and the light coming through the windows. I still have some great leaf pictures to share with you but I thought this might be a nice change of pace. In post I had to open up the shadows and I bumped up the exposure a little but that’s about all.

Day 88 – Autumn Leaves

AutumnLeaves

I had good intentions of taking a camera walk today but it got so windy I knew it would not turn out well. Now the wind has died down some but I’m all out of the mood. So, I reverted to my walk in Lithia Park on October 15. I’m sad to see that many trees have already lost their leaves. But they were still going strong ten or twelve days ago. This was captured with the Sweet 50. In post I added a high pass filter and sharpening and a vignette to help the main leaves to stand out from the background.

Day 87 – Sheep Barn

SheepBarn2

On the coast road from Sutherlin to Reedsport is this barn which I have photographed a number of times. Sometimes the sheep are present, sometimes not. But the fall color made it particularly scenic this time. I had the Velvet 85 on the camera so I just went with it. It was pretty soft out of the camera so I thought to give it an impressionistic look but in scrolling through Topaz Studio, I came across a filter called clear day which actually sharpened things up a bit for a look I really love.

Day 86 – Weeds

Weeds

While new images were made today, the energy and time to upload and process them were lacking. So, while I was very tempted to blow it off for today, I turned to the archives and came up with this image of dying weeds from my last trip to North Mountain Park. This was captured with the Trio 28 on the M100 and I love what it did with the background. It was a little bland so I increased the saturation and vibrance and added a green texture to help it along. I also denoised it in Topaz DeNoise and added a high pass filter and sharpening.

Day 84 – Footprint

FootprintI was a

I was a little hard pressed for something to post today. Many photos were taken but none with lensbaby lenses. Just didn’t have the right subjects for that. So, I had to turn back to yesterday’s beach walk as there hasn’t been time for a beach walk today. Lot’s of eating though…  Anyway, I processed this in Nik Silver efex pro using the Film Noir filter. I’m afraid it looks a little more creepy than artistic but hey, Halloween is coming.