Category: Lensbaby

Day 63 – Crystals

Crystals

I took another camera walk in Medford today, still working with the Velvet 56 mounted on the EOS R, but the light was flat and nothing really inspired me so as I was walking past the antique mall I thought, “Oh, why not.” I got a few strange looks but no one threw me out. Did I mention that I paid $50 extra to get the silver version of the Velvet 56? It is quite the attention getter…  I have gotten more comments on that lens! I’m starting to think black might have been a better choice. But, getting back to the antique mall, I was especially taken with some Pollyanna style lamps with hanging crystals. I added a high pass filter and brightened things up a bit. And, since yesterday was new texture day at the texture club I chose a subtle grunge texture that added just what this image needed.

Day 62 – Thistle with Bee

ThistlewBeeTX

I’m still putting the Velvet 56 through it’s paces so today I took it to growers market. I was just leaving the market when I spotted some thistles blooming. I went over and darned if there weren’t bees buzzing around. I probably could have gotten a little closer from a technical standpoint but I was a little worried about ticking the bees off. So this is a situation where the Velvet 85 might have been the better tool for the job as I really don’t like that dead thistle at the bottom. I cropped in quite a bit as it was. I suppose I could have gone a little further. One advantage to the R camera is it has a lot of pixels to play with. In any case I did brighten it a bit and added a high pass filter for detail. I also added a texture for just a slight painterly look on all that gorgeous blur in the background.

Day 61 – Red Teddy Bear

RedTeddy2

Well, I’m sure there’s a story here somewhere. I decided to take the Velvet 56 over to my favorite sunflower patch. They aren’t doing too well, by the way. Along the way I encountered this Teddy Bear leaning up against a garbage can looking oh so forlorn. I desaturated all but the bear but the grey seemed a little too stark so I added a filter with a reddish tone.

Day 60 – White Rose with Raindrops

 

WhiteRose2Here’s another one from my camera walk with the Velvet 56 yesterday. I had to brighten the exposure on this one due to the white flower tricking the camera into thinking it was grey. I also added a high pass filter to bring out the raindrops. And I added one texture but masked it out over the flower. Textures and the Velvet lenses really do play well together. 

Day 59 – Lavender

LavenderTx

I took the Velvet 56 out for a spin around the neighborhood this morning, mounted on the EOS R. Match made in heaven I think. The combo is light enough to easily hand hold and both the camera and the lens are sharp where they need to be. And the Velvet 56 lives up to all my hopes and expectations as a macro lens. I love, love, love, the super soft background the velvet produces and I was hesitant to mess it up with a texture but in the end I thought the texture added just enough interest to make it a keeper.

Day 58 – Hydrangea Still Life

Hydrangea2

I may have mentioned awhile back that I would be getting a new Lensbaby lens for my birthday. What with travel and jet lag and trying to catch up from being gone it has taken three weeks to get the new Velvet 56 into my hands. With a minimum focus distance of 5″ this lens has the most macro capability of any of my Lensbabies. I’m currently taking an online class in color so I set out to kill three birds with one stone by completing my color homework, testing the new lens and getting something done for the 100 days project. I’m not sure I succeeded, at least from the color standpoint. To my eye the burgundy cloth and the burgundy hydrangeas were about the same tone.  But the camera wanted the flowers to be pink and the cloth red. So, I adjusted the color toward blue and added two bluish toned filters to try to bring it back to what I was seeing in the studio. I used the little bucket and a tin ceiling tile for neutral tones to play against my color. One thing I have noticed so far is that while the velvet 56 can stop down to f1.6, I haven’t been able to get anything in focus at that aperture…it may work better in full macro modes, we’ll see. In any case I look forward to playing with my new toy some more in the days ahead. 

Day 57 – Chess Player

ChessPlayer

I had an OLLI class in downtown Medford yesterday so I decided to take a camera walk around the area and found this bronze chess player in a plaza which, if memory serves, was a parking lot back in the day. I realized I haven’t spent much time in downtown Medford since returning to the valley. Though I have fond memories of shopping at J.C. Penney with my Mom and cruising on a Friday night in Connie Cook’s Mom’s Cadillac (’68ish I think… the Cadillac, I mean, more like ’72 or ’73 for the cruising) I can’t say I ever really spent much time in downtown Medford. Well, there may be a poem there… but in any event I found the area worthy of further exploration so I look forward to the next five Wednesdays to check it out…not to mention the multitude of food trucks converged on the area.

So, this image was challenging because of the position of the sun putting the chess player in shadow. I opened up the shadows, and desaturated the reds and blues to remove distractions from the background. I then decided that it might benefit from a texture. I chose one with a bronzish tone to it. I was blown away with how well it not only highlighted the bronze tones of the statue but also helped to downplay the shadows on his face.

 

Day 56 – Apples

Apples

I’m getting into a nice rhythm of shooting a day ahead which takes some of the stress off. I found these apples at the Grower’s market yesterday. I was touring the marked with the Sol45 mounted on the M3. In post I added some clarity and vibrance and a light room preset which helped to brighten the image. Then I added a texture which I felt mainly gave a richness to the colors as well as a little hint of an edge.

Day 55 – Zinnias

zinneas

I’m starting to get my second wind on this project. I stopped by North Mountain Park yesterday. They had half the park closed off… apparently because of yellow jackets… but fortunately the flowers were still accessible. I haven’t done much with the Sol45 lately so thought to give it a whirl with the zinnia beds. The flowers are a bit past prime but I was happy with the effect though it might look better if the flowers had not been in shadow. In post I adjusted the exposure, added clarity, contrast, and vibrance. Then I added a texture for a little more visual interest.

Day 54 – Seal Rocks

SealRocks

I’ve been promising you something else from the coast but when I looked at my images there were only about 5 using the Sweet 50 and none of them had the focus where I would have liked. But I persisted and processed this one with a faded look that kind of complements the blur using a Topaz Black and White Effects preset called Hand Tinted Chiffon. Hoping to find time for some new captures in the next couple of days.