Sleaford - 2009-01-24

Today I took a short walk around Sleaford, taking my EOS 400D and Lomo Lubitel 166B with me.

It will, obviously, be a while before I have scans of the shots I took with the 166B (there's still some frames to be used on the film), but I have uploaded the photos I took with the 400D:

Sleaford - 2009-01-24

You'll note that they're all shot with the Lensbaby Muse. I've actually made a point of taking it off the camera now and putting it away for a while — it was starting to get a little too addictive. ;-)

A weekend with the new Lensbaby

As I'd hoped, I managed to get out with the Lensbaby this last weekend, and even managed it a couple of times. First off, on Saturday, I managed a quick walk around Billingborough which resulted in this set of photographs: Winter Walk - 2009-01-17.

Then, on Sunday, I took a walk out to Birthorpe and back, the result being this set of photographs: Birthorpe and Back.

So far, I'm still having fun with it and I'm very happy with the purchase. There's little doubt that it can be frustrating at times. Often shooting with it can be a bit hit-and-miss. But there's no question that it's a lot of fun and a very different approach to doing things. It also slows you down, which is no bad thing.

Lensbaby Muse Test

Today I managed to get the Lensbaby Muse onto my EOS 400D and take a few test shots to try it out and try and get used to it.

It took a little bit of getting used to at first, and I was sort of surprised at how it puts a fair bit of strain on your fingers when you're trying to get, then hold, the focus (I'm sure I won't notice this once I really get into using it). But, overall, I had loads of fun with it and can't wait to play with it some more.

So, anyway, here's my Lensbaby Muse Test. All the shots were taken with the double glass optic and the f/4.0 aperture disk.

New Toy: Lensbaby Muse

I've been on and off the idea for some time now but, last week, using some Christmas money that turned up after Christmas, I decided to treat myself to a Lensbaby Muse. After a bit of looking around I decided to order from Bristol Cameras (I'm happy to report that the whole process of ordering to delivery was fast and without any fuss or bother — I'd use them again).

So, here it is, in its little box:

All being well, this weekend, I might even get the chance to get it out of the box and give it a try (that's one of the annoying things about winter in the UK, by the time I get home from work it's dark and I think this sort of lens is best first tested in daylight, less to worry about then).

Update: I managed to do a quick test the following day.

The one I got is the Canon fit (this will be used on my EOS 400D, obviously) with the double glass optic (see the optic comparison gallery for examples of the different optics and the effects they give).

Poladroid

A few weeks back I ran into Poladroid. The idea sounded like fun, and possibly even handy at times: take an image and make it look a little like (what most people think of as) a Polaroid. Sadly (for me), the software was only available for the Mac, but I did notice that a Windows version was coming soon (I run Windows and GNU/Linux here).

Checking today I noticed that the Windows version was finally available, so I had to have a quick play:

This might be fun for some images.