My wife, Edith, and I just got back from a Christmas visit to the home of our son-in-law and daughter in the Ohio countryside. They have a small parcel of land (compared to some of their neighbors) with trees, a pond, and some animals (cats, dogs, goats, turkey, ducks, chickens, and rabbits). They also have six children and are expecting their seventh. They also have a plot of cultivated land with all kinds of vegetables. It’s a well-run operation. They are also very involved in their local Orthodox Church (if you call a 55-minute drive “local”) and a home-school group.
I have found that my Lensbaby Spark 2 lens is great for domestic images rendered in black and white. It has a flexible barrel that you pull back on, straight back or to the side, so that the focus falls where you want it. The removal of color simplifies, and the blur in the image keeps the focus on what interests me (and presumably the viewer, too). While most camera-phones and camera lenses are made to produce sharp images, the Spark is not: even in the in-focus part of the image, it is sub-standard in comparison to professional lenses. The upside is that the general expression in faces is more noticeable when you pull on the lens the right way.
Bruce and Joรซlle and the kids are quite used to me photographing them. The boys tend to show off for the camera, make faces, and so forth, which is fun — once. Sophie likes to be photographed, but she does not clown for the camera.
The most fun is capturing everyone, adults and kids, when they are not noticing.
Photos of babies are very popular at Christmas, partly, of course, because Christmas is the celebration of the Christ child, but also because we are sentimental about babies. What do women do when they see other women’s photos of their babies? Ooh and ah!
I walk for 40 minutes every day (except the two days I swim). So when I’m in Ohio I walk out from their home in two directions. One takes me past a stream that sometimes overflows the road, but at other times is pretty low. Here’s what I saw when I looked through the Lensbaby Velvet 56 lens.
One morning there was a lot of fog over the fields. I knew I would get some great images — the “fine art,” moody stuff. So off I went with the Velvet 56 again. I took a lot longer than 40 minutes, as I stopped often to shoot. Some of these are treated in post-processing software to bring out their potential.
