Lensbaby for Street Photography

 Double Glass Optic 50m, f4, 1/4000sec ISO 200

Lensbaby and street photography, not an easy task but great tool to separate your subject from his surroundings.  I was in Palermo Viejo a neighborhood of Buenos Aires in Argentina, beautiful country, and an amazing city, that morning I decided to do street photography bringing only my camera and one lens my Lensbaby Composer and the double glass optic. The way this optic works like most of the Lensbaby optics, you have to manually add your aperture, small little disc that have a variety of size and shape.  One hint for starter, it is way easier to use f5.6 and up aperture to start an learn you way down to  f1.2 that will save you a great amount of frustration, my favorite aperture using this optic for street photography and portrait is f4.

f4, 1/400sec, ISO 200

 Double Glass 50m, f4, 1/1250 sec ISO 200 the morning news!

Back to Palermo, that day I decided to go for f4, wandering in the street close to the church I saw that homeless woman, in reality at that moment I regretted not having my Canon 24-105 lens "my favorite street lens", it means not only to be creative but to get closer to my subject, the double glass optic is only 50m. I gave the woman money and began shooting, no tripod, manual focus, at f4.  I learned 3 valuable lessons that day, never go out without my 24-105, start using Lensbaby optic more often and always bring a tripod.

The result was very interesting, now on I always have Lensbaby with me, it's a very creative tool that doesn't take a lot of space. For better resolution and more of Argentina images visit my site at

http://dianedugas-imagen.com
  

Recoleta Cemetery Buenos Aires, Argentina

Recoleta Cemetery Entrance, Canon 5D Markii, 24-105 at 24mm, f14, 1/60sec, ISO200, Black and White

I passed few weeks visiting La Recoleta Cemetery, during a trip to Buenos Aires, in Spring 2011, I had the chance to do a lot of shooting  my subject where mostly "Statues", for me they represented the spirit of the place, they are in fact the residents,

This cemetery is an amazing place, 14 acres of history, I used a map to find my way around, if your time is limited the best option will be to go on a tour. 

That cemetery contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Peron, most of Argentina Presidents, Nobel Prize Winners, etc..., and a lot of cats.

The location is great in the heart of La Recoleta BA best neighborhood, very cultural, with the  National Fine Arts Museum, a lot of great shopping and BA best restaurants.

For our stay like always we rented an apartment from  http://www.bytargentina.com  they are great and affordable.

 If you have any questions about BA, don't hesitate to ask me, I may not be able to know the answer but I can find out, I have a lot friends in Argentina that can help.

For the shooting I used my Canon 5D Markii, and different lenses, including Lensbaby,  I wrote the shooting info under each image, you can find more images by visiting my website gallery Fine ArtRecoleta Cemetery BA 2011

The Little Angel, Canon 5D Markii,16-35 at 18mm, f18, 1/85sec, ISO200, Black and White onOne Soft

The Man Canon 5D Markii, Lensbaby, double glass optic  50mm, f4, 1/1600sec, ISO200,

The Queen, Canon 5D Markii, Lensbaby, double glass optic  50mm, f4, 1/2500sec, ISO200,  Black and White on

The 2 Brothers Canon 5D Markii, 24-105 at 105mm, f5.6, 1/1250sec, ISO200, Black and White onOne Software

The Bird on the Cross, Canon 5D Markii, 24-105 at 24mm, f9, 1/400sec, ISO200, Black and White  

 The Good Over Evil,   Canon 5D Markii, 24-105 at 67mm, f4, 1/800sec, ISO200, Black and White

 Angel,  Canon 5D Markii, Lensbaby, double glass optic  50mm, f4, 1/500sec, ISO200

The End of the Day, Canon 5D Markii, 24-105 at 105mm, f7, 1/80sec, ISO200, Black and White onOne S

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Indiana Jessy at the Jurassic Park "La Quinta Anabtawi"!

This image was done using 53 photos stitched together.

Working with Jessy is always fun,  this time we decided to relax and enjoy a sunny Sunday morning at our friend Riyad place " La Quinta Anabtawi, in Vistalba Mendoza.

We were there for our photography meet up, this was my last one as the group organizer, and it was the best one ever!

I did 2 panoramic photos, the one on top was done using 53 photos stitched together, I had to reduce the resolution of all the photos to merge them in Photoshop to prevent crash, I am hoping to redo it with even more resolution with a better program.
For the second one I used 26 images a bit faster to merge, but still I had to reduce the resolution of all photos again to prevent crash!

This image was done using 26 photos stitched together.

 I also used my small Lensbaby Circular Fisheye 5.8mm, extreme wide angle, not crazy with the resolution but it a creative tool, and I use it from time to time,

Lensbaby Circular Fisheye, 5.8mm, extreme wide angle, Fall in Mendoza Argentina

Lensbaby Circular Fisheye, 5.8mm, extreme wide angle "Ceibo Argentina National Flower

 Keeping the best part for the end, I shoot Jessy my bff and favorite model, this time my heroine was playing the role of Indiana Jessy in Jurassic Park, I processed all the photo in black and white for 2 reason, first I wanted to give the photo a vintage movie look and second all the photos were shot during the noon hour the worst time to take photo, harsh light not great for any photos especially for portrait. No matter how harsh the light was Jessy always looked great, as you'll see with this little story teller,                    "Indiana Jessy at the Jurassic Park!"

Behind the scene!

Riyad helping Jessy to get into position,

Jessy having fun, like always during our shooting session!!!

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Jan. no 2, Mendoza Fig Tree,

I have visited Mendoza many times, but never this time of the year.

We have a fig tree in our backyard, a beautiful tree, every time we staid here the tree had fruit, I look at it 2 weeks ago, and saw small buds, I was very excited as I never saw a fig tree blooming,

Few nights ago sitting on the balcony, I saw some flowers, at first I wasn't sure it was from the tree,
we have a lot of different plants in the backyard, but it was,  it amazed me how beautiful fig tree flowers are.

The next morning I decided to do some macro shooting using different lenses, "Canon 100mm macro lens, Lensbaby soft optic and Lensbaby double glass optic.

My fig tree

Canon 100mm Macro at f3.2, I like the crispness of this lens, at f3.2 it also have a beautiful blurry effect

Canon 100mm Macro, this time at f2.8 keeping only the front flower in focus.

Lensbaby soft focus at f4, everything is soft with this optic.

Lensbaby soft optic f4, I added texture to this one to add to this already dreamy look.

Lensbaby double glass optic, f4, keeping only part of the image in focus.

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Corel Painter 2015

Few months ago, when trying the new Corel Painter 2015, I found out that the new version had a lot of bugs,  brush pressure problems, most of the brush didn't respond to Wacom tablet stylus. I was very frustrated and continued to use my older version.

Corel Painter is an expensive and extensive program and the new version had a lot more creative tools, I sent an email to Corel about the problem and at that time they were working on a patch.

Yesterday I decided to check if the patch was ready and it was.

 The New Particle Brushes and Jitter Smooth tool create organic shape and it's excellent to create texture directly on the canvas.

During the next few months I will experiment with the new tools, a lot of tutorial to watch!!!

Experimenting with Corel Painter 2015,

Original Photo, Canon 5D Markiii and Lensbaby double glass optic.

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Lensbaby New Circular Fisheye Lens

Lensbaby new Circular Fisheye lens, is quite different to a regular fisheye lens, you can focus as close as 1/4" and as far as infinity.

I was anticipated the arrival on that new lens, with a lot excitation, everything about it seems amazing, but my first experience wasn't what I expected.

HOW TO USE from Lensbaby Site

1. Adjust your camera's diopter for your eyesight. 
2. Set your camera to manual or aperture priority mode.
3. Set your aperture.
4. Rotate the ring to focus.

Seems easy enough, except if you are like me using a full frame camera, as it produce a lot smaller image circle, it means for me anyway that I cannot use my viewfinder, I cannot see any details way too small.

A bit of frustration, I put it away for few days, as I am so busy preparing our move to Argentina!

Even if I wasn't happy at first, I decided to give it another try, just few shots, using my camera digital screen and using the magnification button up to x10 it is pretty easy to focus and see all the details.

I am going to do other test shots using my tripod, and I am sure that with time and practice this little piece of equipment will become a favorite not only for imagery but also for movie clips during my adventure to North and South America.

I cropped the image to give you a better view,  Jpg's at very low resolution,  my tiff high resolution images even if I cropped them and used high ISO "800" are very clear, even at f3.5

View from my window early morning, rainy day, Very low resolution image, Lensbaby Fisheye Circular mounted on Canon full frame 5D Markiii,  f3.5, 1/160sec, ISO 640

As close as I could get the lens almost touching the tomatoes, Lensbaby Fisheye Circular mounted on Canon full frame 5D Markiii,  f3.5, 1/4sec. ISO800

As you can see the possibility are amazing, from many hotel room windows to directly into different meal plates, I am positive this will be a great travel lens.

I am going to try different shooting techniques with it, and keep you updated with my results,

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Lensbaby Flowers

 Soft Focus Optic, added texture in a layer using Photoshop, and onOne Perfect Effect

I used Lensbaby lenses and optics for a lot of different application, one of my favorite is to shoot flowers, I love the softness and dreamy effect of these little creative lenses, I got 2 lenses the Composer and Composer Pro, very similar lenses, why having 2, cause it make my live easier, I put a different optic on each of them, that way I am ready to shoot, not that changing optic is difficult, but if I can eliminate a step why not.  I am using different optics, but my 2 favorites are soft focus and double glass.

All the following photos were done using Canon 5D Markii, and Lensbaby Composer lens, using different optics, and macro kit. All optics at 50mm, all apertures f4

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 Soft Focus Optic, onOne Perfect Black and White

 Double Glass Optic

Soft Focus Optic

 Double Glass Optic

  Double Glass Optic

 Double Glass Optic

 Double Glass Optic

Soft Focus Optic

Soft Focus Optic, Corel Painter X3 Gouache

  Double Glass Optic

Soft Focus Optic

Double Glass Optic

Double Glass Optic, added texture in a layer using Photoshop

Double Glass Optic, added texture in a layer using Photoshop

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