On 5/20/07 8:38 PM, in article
wK64i.11827$Ut6.5869@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Unclaimed
Mysteries"
<the_letter_k_and_the_numeral_4_doh@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> 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.
>
U Bad Boy
|
