Christmas Cheer

It's almost time for Christmas and I can't wait.  Mind you, there's a lot to do before I can relax and just take in the holiday.  Last minute presents to buy, packing to do before fighting the crowds at the airport, and, of course, lots of assignments to finish at work.  But that doesn't stop me from feeling some Christmas joy.  I planning on blaring Christmas music at my desk today and counting down the days until I can officially celebrate.  "Tis the season.

So, in response to my earlier post on Christmas, my friend Laura asked if any of the photos were taken with my lensbaby (lots of links for you to follow!).  None were, but that got me thinking.  Why don't I take some photos of my Christmas tree with my lensbaby?  Deep thoughts, right?  Honestly, though, I hadn't taken photos with the lensbaby for awhile.  In an almost shamefully long time.  But I immediately knew what about the lensbaby I would use to capture my Christmas cheer:  the star- and heart-shaped aperture disks. 

And ta-da!  My tree as re-envisioned by the lensbaby. 

(my Christmas tree, photographed December 2010)

The Key to Happiness

As part of our cruise, my friend Meghan and I had a "shore excursion" to Key West.  I've been there a couple times before on vacation and was looking forward to seeing it again.  Unfortunately, we only had a few hours in the morning to explore.

But we packed a lot in. Parasailing, a visit to the southernmost point in the continental U.S.A., conch fritters, key lime pie dipped in chocolate and frozen on a stick...

And of course, a couple of drinks at Ernest Hemingway's old bar Captain Tony's (formerly Sloppy Joes). So what if those drinks were at 10:30 in the morning? It was 5 o'clock somewhere...

And, if you can't tell, I played around with my lensbaby while in Key West. 

(Key West, photographed May 2010)

On A Boat...

I recently went on my first ever cruise and was accompanied by my friend Meghan (hi Meghan!)  Some people are cruise people.  Some people are not.  Meghan and I are decidedly cruise people.  We loved the shows, the chaise lounges, the bars, the endless buffets...

And we loved the "shore excursions."  We went parasailing in Key West and visited some Mayan ruins in Mexico.  What was funny was that, once we disembarked at port in Mexico, we immediately got on another boat to ferry us to the ruins.  But it was a beautiful day to be on a boat, especially one that served ice cold cerveza (Mind you, we stayed away from the margaritas and pina coladas for fear of Montezuma's revenge. Where'd they get the ice from?).  There was even a cute boy playing a guitar for us.  Who could complain?

This bottom photo is with lensbaby for those who are keeping track.

(Mexico, photographed June 2010)

Lensbaby-baby

This is Lensbaby-baby, or as I like to call it, lensbaby-squared (yes, I am a nerd).

As you might recall from this post, I recently bought a new lens system for my camera called a lensbaby.  I'm still learning how it works and trying out the various optics that can be swapped in and out of the lens body.  Like swatches back in the day, you can easily switch the parts depending on your mood.  So when my friend Nicole asked me to take photos of her baby girl Greta, I thought it would be a good opportunity to play around some more with the lensbaby.

Although it may not be everyone's favorite (I know a certain friend of mine calls lensbaby photos all a blurry mess), I like how these photos turned out.  Real dreamy and with soft focus.  Yes, soft focus - not blurry.  And if you look at the bottom photo closely or enlarge it, you can see some stars in Greta's eyes (seriously, I have a creative aperture disc that is star shaped that creates that effect.  Neat, huh?).  I can't wait to play around with my lensbaby more.

(Greta, photographed May 2010)

Look What the Stork Brought...

I'm a proud new mama.  

But not of a real baby (and certainly won't be for a while) and not of another kitten (even though last post still really makes me want one).  Nope, I got a lensbaby.  I'm such a sucker.  I love that name.  Lensbaby.  Adorable.  If you know me, it should come as no surprise that I first read up on this lens system because I thought the name was cute.  Too. Darn. Cute.  And I'm a sucker for its packaging, too.  When I opened the box with my new lensbaby in it, on the top was a green pamphlet with "mama?" written on the front, like it was a baby bird hatching and asking if it belonged to me.  Yes, such a sucker for those things...

But cute gimmicky names and packaging aside, I think it's going to be a great addition to my camera bag.  Mind you, it will never be my primary lens.  But it's a type of camera lens that allows for some really creative effects.  It tilts and spins around to allow for selective aperture affects and comes with four different optic pieces that can be swapped out (kind of like swatches back in the day - they even come with bright neon colors to distinguish between them). 

I bought my lensbaby on Friday, and by Friday night I was snapping photos.

 These are just some slightly random shots taken around new york as I played with my new baby. The first four photos were taken with the double glass optic (for those of you who have now looked up the lensbaby).  These last two photos, my subway shots, were taken using the single glass optic, which is supposed to create a vintage or dreamy feel to the photos.  I think it works.

Now to the nay-sayers that say "who needs this lens when photoshop can achieve a lot of the same effects?", I must answer that I really don't like using photoshop.  For me the fun is getting what I want using my camera, not my computer.  Besides, lensbaby requires me to work in manual mode, which will finally force me to really get to know how my camera works. I often (read: usually) shoot in automatic mode.  Not with my lensbaby though.

(nyc, photographed with lensbaby May 2010)