JoeBS wrote:
> On Sun, 20 May 2007 18:00:37 -0400, Rita Ä Berkowitz <ritaberk2O04
@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> wrote:
>
>> DBLEXPOSURE wrote:
>>
>>>> To me this looks like a gimmick. Interesting the first time you see
>>>> it, but does distract from the real subject.
>>> Actually, the opposite is true, the selective focus draws the eye
>>> towards the sweetspot. The concept is not new and the Lensbaby has
>>> been around for a while as well. It makes for some very nice
>>> ****trait work, as with any effect it can be overdone but when used
>>> effectively, stunning images result.
>>> http://www.lensbabies.com/index.php?page=lb2/galleries
>> Sorry, I'm just not feeling it with these images. It simply doesn't
make
>> any sense to ruin the possibility of having great ****trait shots with
this
>> dime-store gimmick.
>>
>
> That was my feeling exactly when I saw what Lensbaby was for and can do.
I can
> get better effects from a kid's $10 "Bug Eye -- See the world as a Bug
Does!"
> plastic optics set I found in a tourist trap one time. A photographer
should
> take excellent images to start with, then you can always do anything you
want to
> them. Even ruin them, into effects like Lensbaby creates, in
post-processing.
> But you can't go back and get those photos again once Lensbaby has
already
> ruined the source image for you. No different then letting the camera
put the
> date and time stamp on your photo. You can't remove it later when you
realize
> what an error it was to let something ruin your source image.
>
> Amateurish, to say the least.
>
> If there was a world-vote for the most amateurish photo gimmick ever
marketed,
> Lensbaby would win top honors.
I was skeptical too, until I tried a Lensbaby for myself.
Within 30 minutes of fixing a Lensbaby on the trusty 50mm f/1.8 lens on
a totally digital Nikanonpus D200D30Dsx, my levels of blood sugar and
adrenaline began to soar. I felt a ringing in my ears and a horrible
queasiness in the pit of my stomach. I didn't even know my stomach /had/
a pit. Anyway, the whole world no longer had any right angles. Reality
was becoming oblique. I felt like a character acid-tripping out in one
of those 1960s "Drugs Are Bad, Kids" educational films. Buildings, dogs,
people, everything was sharp, then blurred, then sharp again but never
in the same place twice. I was constantly hungry and nauseous at the
same time. Calliope music playing Hendrix was running incessantly
through my head. I wanted to unscrew my skull to check my brain's wiring
for bad solder joints, but the bats wouldn't let me. They kept SWOOPING
and SWOOPING. So I raised my camera to try to get some selective focus
action shots.
At this point my recollection becomes less rational. I vaguely remember
bending the Lensbaby into a pretzel shape to capture the precision
flight of the bats. Or was it the US Air Force Thunderbirds? No matter.
And I remember being slapped a couple of times, and dancing to a police
car's disco lights ($1). But I woke up hours later with a spitting
headache, a citation for durnk and disodorly, and a memory card filled
with images of unnameable Lovecraftean horrors that must never be seen
by the public, if our fragile civilization is to survive.
Cool.
--
It Came From Corry Lee Smith's Unclaimed Mysteries.
http://www.unclaimedmysteries.net
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