I have lots of time free for photography now that my exams are over (if still not as much time as I would like). Once getting over the initial hurdles of using new photo management software, things are running far more efficiently on my antique laptop. These factors combined have allowed me to get ahead of the game for once. I actually have lots of photos ready and waiting to be posted here and on Red Bubble. Today I used a random number generator to help me decide which photos to post.

Today I went to the same botanical garden that Graem and I visited our first week in Ottawa. This time I was properly armed with the macro lens and my Lensbaby. As I walked home, I experimented taking Lensbaby pictures of the fall trees. As always with the Lensbaby, most didn't turn out. It is tough to know exactly where the area of sharp focus is, especially when shooting something far away. Sometimes things look good in the viewfinder and the camera's LCD, only to be a blurry mess when I view them on the big screen at home. When a Lensbaby shot works, though, the results can be magic.

The light is not terrific in this photo, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. I actually took several shots trying to get the framing right. I was crouching at the side of the road, trying to time my shots between the passing cars. I must have looked like a lunatic!

I was sitting on the stoop eating popsicles on Saturday when it occurred to me that I should phtograph the side of my neighbors' house with the lensbaby. I'm not sure what kind of effect I was trying to achieve. I liked the shadows of the leaves dancing on the brick wall. The lensbaby gives one area of extremely sharp focus where you can actually see the pores in the brick. As you move out toward the corners, the perfect uniformity of the brick wall is stretched and distorted.

I wanted to try again with this picture to see if I could do better, but it has proven surprisingly difficult. There is a window of only about 10 minutes where the light is right for this kind of shot. Yesterday the neighbors were having a party. Tonight it was raining. I took some shots of the side of my own house that I haven't uploaded yet. I still think this one is interesting.

I've been meaning to take the lensbaby to the train bridge and try to capture a train. I think the combination of lensbaby + moving train would result in some very interesting pictures. In reality, it would probably result in focusing difficulties and a big mess of blur.

We decided to try it out tonight at sunset. We went to the train bridge and waited... Unfortunately the train schedule is unpredictable... or maybe unknowable is a better word. There wasn't a train. We stuck around for a while and took lensbaby pictures, most of which didn't turn out. Here's one of the more interesting ones, converted to black and white.

The selective blur effect in this photo is created by a Lensbaby Composer. I used to think the Lensbaby was a poor man's tilt-shift lens... now I realize it's more just a toy. It takes some interesting photos, nonetheless.

I used the Lensbaby to make it appear that the old rusty tractor was racing across the field.