Pink Azalea - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, Sweet 35
Outside the back door we have a sea of pink…they don’t last all that long so I’ve been shooting them as much as I can while they are at their peak.
Here’s another Lensbaby fish-eye shot of the red and pink azalea’s…lots of fun.
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Pink Azalea - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, Fish-eye
Spanish Bluebells - D700, 85mm PC
Just outside the back door we have a row of these Spanish Bluebells that were glowing in the sunlight this morning. Grabbed the camera with the 85mm PC and a Soft-Ray filter and found this shot. Processed in CS5 using the ‘pixel bender’ oil-paint plug-in.
And now for something completely different…just down the road is this farm I drive by just about everyday. I have started to look for when the light is best and how to shoot it. Of course IR is always in the back of my mind so here is an IR version of the barn down the road…
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Oak School Road Barn - D200, IR converted, 18-35mm
Lily of the Valley - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, fish-eye
OK this might be the last of the ‘lily of the valley’ fish-eye shots…not totally sure about that but pretty sure. The first image is shot in the shade on a tripod using ‘Live View” to get the focus right. Then you get out your led flashlight and paint a little sunshine into the scene. I highly recommend the Fenix LD10 led flashlight for macro work. You get four different intensity setting so you can dial in as much or little light you need. This image is a combination of two photos with a slightly different angle with the flashlight. Loaded both images in CS5 on different layers and painted in the light I wanted to use. Additional post production with Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0, Tonal Contrast and blended in some Topaz Simplify too.
Lily of the Valley - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, fish-eye
No flashlight on this one, just some Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Classical Soft Focus filter.
Click on images to view a little larger…two sepia versions for you b+w fans.
Lily of Valley - sepia version
Lily of Valley - sepia version 2
Lily of the Valley - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, fish-eye
Here’s another ‘lily of the valley’ image shot with the Lensbaby fish-eye optic. Post production on this one was done using the ‘pixel bender’ oil paint plug-in for CS5 to give a more painterly feel.
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Lily of the Valley - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, Fish-eye optic
The ‘lily of the valley’ are starting to hit their peak now and I have been checking them out daily looking for a different way to shoot them this year. I broke out the Lensbaby fish-eye optic and crawled around the patch looking for an interesting composition. Here is one of my early shots with the fish-eye. Not an easy lens to use, you got to get REAL close to make an interesting composition. Had to resort to “Live View” to make the composing easier and make sure I was in focus, getting harder to focus as I get older. Yes that’s a small spider that appeared for this shot only.
Some layering and masking with different blend modes was done to make this into more of a paperweight image.
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Pink Azalea - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, Fish-eye Optic
Looking around the garden yesterday trying to find a different view of my annual ‘lily of the valley’ photos. I got the Lensbaby fisheye optic out and started sketching to see if it would give me something different. Anyway I got sidetracked by the color of the azalea’s. Yes, I did get some lily of the valley shots that were OK…I’m refining that image some more.
When I started processing this shot I fell in love with the color’s and mood of the shot. Processed in Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 with the Polaroid Transfer filter and a few tweaks back in Photoshop. Not what I expected, but happy to find it…
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Sweet 35 Dogwood f2.8 - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro
A couple more dogwood images shot with the Lensbaby Sweet 35 optic. The first one was shot at f/2.8 to soften the background as much as possible. Then with a quick flick of the lens I changed to f/8 for the second image to add some more detail into the background. Much easier and quicker with the Sweet 35 optic, no more fumbling with the aperture rings and the case they come in…less bits and pieces to carry or lose too.
Sweet 35 Dogwood f8 - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro
And for you black & white fans…here are some sepia toned versions…
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Sweet 35 Dogwood f2.8 sepia - D700
Sweet 35 Dogwood f8 sepia - D700
Pink Dogwood Soft - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro
A few more from the dogwood in the yard…the wind was really blowing…but not quite as much as this. I did a little work in CS5 using Pixel Bender blur.
This one is using my 85mm PC lens, one version in color and one converted to black and white in Nik Silver Effects Pro.
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Pink Dogwood - D700, 85mm PC
Pink Dogwood, B+W - D700 85mm PC
Pink Dogwood - D700, Lensbaby Composer Pro, Soft Focus Optic
Every year I enjoy photographing the pink dogwood in our yard. The rain finally stopped and the light was wonderful. Right after it’s stops raining is one of my favorite times to photograph, just grab your camera and go outside. I put my Lensbaby Composer on with the soft focus optic and proceeded to shoot a few hundred images. The wind was starting to blow the flowers around quite a bit so there was a bit of a challenge. Should be a few more images worth posting later as I review and process the ones that speak to me…
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Orange Tulips - D700, Lensbaby Composer, Sweet 35
It’s been some time since I have posted anything to the blog…also been some time since I’ve had any free time, energy or desire to do any photography. We have had a serious medical issue at home that has taken all my energy to manage. At the present time things have settled down and we are trying to get some kind of life back…soooo I have managed to do some new images.
My wife has been getting flowers from the family every week for a while now and that makes for some instant subject matter. The orange tulips were shot back-lit in the window using the new Sweet 35 optic from Lensbaby. Much easier to adjust the f-stop quickly as needed.
Textured Pink Tulips - D700, Lensbaby Composer, Sweet 35
The pink tulips were shot using the same setup and processed with some texture overlays using Flypaper Textures. I’ve been wanting to play with these for a while and now I finally got to have some fun. This is my first experiment with the Flypaper Textures and I’m sure it won’t be my last.
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