The Traveling Lensbaby Project

Hello Storyteller is excited to continue with our next installment of the Traveling Lensbaby Project! We have several Lensbabies circulating around the globe. Our Hello Creatives are excited to use these lenses and share their unique art with our community. Our next submission is from the incredible Jocelyn Velush  with the Lensbaby Burnside 35, Lensbaby Sol 45, and Lensbaby Omni Filter System!

Learn all about shooting with Lensbaby in our Language of Lensbaby course!

“I picked up my first Lensbaby, a Velvet 56, almost 3 years ago when I wanted to learn macro photography but a true macro lens wasn’t in my budget. Well, I absolutely loved it and it became one of my favorite lenses of all time- sparking a love for all things Lensbaby in the process! I now have a dedicated macro lens but love using my suite of Lensbabies even more.  In addition to that first Velvet 56, I own the Sol 45, Burnside 35, and Omni Wand system. While I do shoot with other lenses (I have a slight addiction!),  I’d say I almost always have one of these lenses on my camera. 

All of the Lensbabies I’ve tried are so versatile – I use them for portraits, flat lays, self-portraits, macro, wildlife, landscapes – you name it! There is a definite learning curve because they are all manual focus lenses. And while I don’t always nail focus, especially with a moving subject, the dreamy quality that these lenses and accessories give have become an integral part of my voice. I love how the selective focus helps me call attention to a specific part of the scene and I especially love the different effects that each of them have on bokeh, which is one of my favorite qualities in an image. 

Sol 45

I bought the Sol 45 last December to kick-off a December of Lensbaby challenge where I took a Lensbaby photo every day in December. I quickly fell in love with this lens, and took some of my all-time favorite images during this time. Portraits have always been my weakest genre and I love that these lenses make it a little bit more fun and imperfect, intentionally.

I also love stacking the sol 45 with extension tubes to get a closer look. It has become one of my favorite lenses for macro photography, though it can be tricky because the aperture is set at f3.5, so I go in knowing the focus will not be as sharp as with other lenses and I’m taking some creative liberties. 

For this image I used the Sol + omni wands to focus on the leaves – the Omni wands make it appear as if there are more bare branches (along the bottom of the frame) than there really are and add interest to the composition. 

Burnside 35

Next up- the Burnside 35. I LOVE the twisty bokeh effect you can get with the burnside. I was on the fence about this lens but I saw some amazing sprinkler/hose images that Holly Awwad (@hollynicoletimekeeper) had posted in the Hello Storyteller Facebook Community and I impulse purchased mine. Fast forward a year and I finally got my own backlit sprinkler / hose images this summer!

I’ve also experimented with free-lensing and reverse free lensing with my Lensbabies- I am always out lying in the grass taking macro shots and this reverse free-lensed with the Burnside is one of my all time favorites!

More with the Burnside 35:

 

Omni Creative Filter System

I use my omni system most frequently with my Velvet 56 because it best fits this lens (based on the attachment I purchased), but I will occasionally hold the wands up myself with other lenses to see what effects I can get! 

The Omni wand system magnetically attaches to your camera and offers a great hands free experience. For this image I had my camera on my tripod with several Omni wands in front of the lens and was experimenting for a series of self-portraits. I took down clarity in post to give this image an extra dreamy effect. The green triangle shape on the left comes from the Omni wand as does the blur on the right side of the image. 

 

The wands work best with your aperture open wide so you don’t see the wand itself – you can see in this photo it’s a bit visible in the bottom left.

This image is an in-camera double exposure, I took a photo of the greenery and then a photo of rain from the inside of a window, using the stretch glass omni wand to create the lines to create a sense of movement with the raindrops.

I don’t recall which lens this was, but used the Omni rainbow wand  to enhance the sunset effect, which truly wasn’t that spectacular SOOC.

I hope this helped you get a sense for what you can do with each of these Lensbabies and the Omni accessories! Feel free to reach out with any questions!”

Stay tuned for more Traveling Lensbaby Project adventures! We will continue to travel with the Sol 45, Burnside 35, Velvet 56 and Omni System!

For more inspiration, follow Jocelyn on Instagram!