Monday, December 24, 2007

Lensbaby!

We had our family Christmas dinner and gift exchange on Saturday night because my daughter and her husband left for Houston Sunday to see his family. I must have been good all year and Santa must have checked his list twice because I got a Lensbaby! Lensbabies are crazy special-effects lenses for SLR cameras (film or digital). They are built on a small bellows and have a "sweet spot" of focus in the center, becoming progressively more blurred toward the edges. The tube is flexible, so you can move the sharp zone out of the center of the image, effectively bending the area of focus and distortion. You have to look at their web site to really understand.

I shot this near sunset downtown. Likely many more to come.

TOMORROW: Merry Christmas from St. Louis, with a little optical distortion

10 comments:

Mitch said...

Strange -
New camera toys for Christmas! Wow! cool! I'm excited to see what you can do with it. I haven't tried playing with one yet, but they look fun. I like your first experiment. I'm curious to see if you can do this trick in camera: http://www.mitchster.com/2007/11/14/miniaturized-railroad/

Congrats on the new toy and raising your kids right. :)

- Mitch, Daily Minneapolis Photographer

pusa said...

how i envy your new lens! =)

still wishing you and your family the love, blessings, and warmest cheers of the holidays. mErRy ChRiStMaS!!!

pusa
i heart manila

Ming the Merciless said...

Awesome photo! Never heard of lensbaby but I have now.

I really like the effect on the building in the reflection. It looked like it's crumbling.

You must have been a good boy this year indeed.

Rob said...

Ah cool! Merry Christmas to you and your family! I have read about this lens, and thought they would be a great lens to have. That is if I had a DSLR camera. Still waiting for that. Cool pic! looking forward to viewing more from this Lensbaby.

Unknown said...

I've thought about getting one, but wonder if I'd get bored with it after a while.

Thanks for visiting my site and leaving comments.

Have a great Christmas & brilliant 2008. Visit my page to see one of the world's best rock singers.

Jen said...

Had never heard of these. They look pretty cool. I might have to look into them in the future. I was pretty good this year too as Santa brought me the new Nikon D300, so I have also been playing pretty much non-stop.

Merry Christmas to the Taste Family and best wishes.

Sally said...

Yep, very, very cool!

Festive greetings of the season, whatever the festival or season means for you! I don’t get much time these days to visit and leave comments for all my bloggy friends…but love catching up with pics when I can.

Irina said...

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you and your family! May harmony and prosperity accompany you in the course of coming 2008, and let's leave all the worries in outgoing year!

Thank you for visiting my blog and supporting me with your comments!

Irina said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Andree said...

Ooohhh I want one! I assume that some subjects are better for it than others. I'm going there now to put on my wishlist. This photo is SO neat!