Tell me a Story: March 2017

This month I am going to do something slightly different.  As some of you know I am totally into the Lensbaby products and have really enjoyed playing with them.  In November 2015 a fellow photographer was selling her Lensbaby Composer Pro with the Sweet 35 optic.  I had been watching her posts and loving what she was getting with this sweet lens.  So when she said she was selling it, I jumped at the offer.  I loved the effects of the Sweet 35.

Sweet 35 Optic

I loved the effect of the soft focus, but this has taken a while for me to get used to, I felt like it was a little too soft.

The Soft Focus Optic

Then the Twist came out.  I could not afford the fixed Twist lens so I opted to purchase the twist optic.  It still gives a great effect.  What the twist does is twist the background of your image keeping the focal point in focus.  I have the composer pro so that means that my focal point can shift from the center.  In this case it shifted to the side.  I found that it did not do a great twist in my office so I took them outside to get the full effect.

The Twist Optic

I saw that a friend was selling her Composer Pro with a Sweet 50 optic and I decided to get that for Amy for Christmas.  After playing with the optic for a while, I was tempted to keep the sweet 50 but what did I give up. Ugh!!.  Since I do not have it here I could not take a photo of the lilies.

Then I really liked the effects of the double glass so I went searching for the optic and managed to find it on EBay.  Well that came with another Composer Lens.  So I figured, well you could not have too many housing units and for the price I was getting the optic I wanted. So that was a new addition to my Lensbaby family.

The Double Glass

Usable with the Double Glass optic is the macro lens +4 and +10

The Double Glass optic with the Macro +4 lens

The Double Glass and Macro +10 lens

For the sake of this blog and meeting my deadline, I was okay with these macro’s but I do need more practice.  This was the first time I have ever used them.

The most recent additions came about because I had spotted some work done with a pinhole zone plate and began the search for this optic. Ironically, after scouring through EBay, I found some refurished optics on Lensbaby itself, for a minimal price.  They had 3 different optics – the Pinhole Zoneplate, the Plastic, and the Single Glass optic, so I got them all.

The Pinhole Zoneplate Optic

The Plastic Optic

The Single Glass Optic

I do not have the Sweet 50 (although I loved using the one I gave to Amy).  I do not have the Edge 50 or 80.  One of the edges is on my bucket list when funds free up.  I have had a lot of fun trying out the new lens this past week to give you some idea of the effects you can get with the Lensbaby Composer or Composer Pro and the various optics and macro lens.

If you are thinking about one, know that they are fun, but remember that it takes practice. They are manual lens and that means you may not get it right more times than you do.  But when you get it right you will love it.  I would encourage anyone who is thinking about these lens to take the plunge – they are a lot of fun.

Thank you for joining me for this month’s Tell me a Story.    This is a circle blog.  Please take time to visit my fellow blogger LUPJi Photography | North Virginia Event Photographer and see what he have for you this month. Keep following the circle to see what the other photographers have shared this month. Don’t forget to leave a little love on their pages.

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