A Little Spark

My friend Heidi has a Lensbaby and I'm so in love with her photos. I love the concept of the tilt-shift lens, but wasn't sure how much I'd actually use it daily, so I've put off buying one. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm trying to save up for a new camera body and spending $300-400 for a new lens is a bit out of my price range. When I found out that Lensbaby recently released the Spark, which is just 80 beans, I couldn't resist. I figured it would give me a good idea of how much I'd use the more pricey lens.

It's a super funky looking lens and it's really light weight, I mean like featherweight light.

Here's a shot from the side. It's a fixed aperture (f/5.6) and manual focus. The focusing is actually pretty funky too, you have to compress the lens (squeeze it towards you) to focus on your subject. It's a bit tricky to get the accurate focus, especially since you have to hold it in place and press the shutter button all at the same time. My husband, who is not a photographer, could get accurate focusing (see photo of me below), so if you're worried about it, don't be. :)

I also just wanted to give a shout-out to My Funky Camera, who sent me this totally AWESOME wrist strap as a prize winning (thank you!!). I've been looking to add a little security to my camera when I do handheld shooting (which is most of the time), getting one with bling was a bonus. It's only $25 in her shop and she's got loads of other sparkly (and non sparkly) choices!

I shot these two photos out of the window of a moving car on our way home from the store. I was not driving, I promise you that.

We also stopped on our way home to visit with Adam's BFF Eliot.

After dinner that night, I had another model, Gretzky. I used my Lightscoop to get some brightness in this really dark room. If you haven't heard of the Lightscoop, I totally recommend it. It's gotten me through some tough, non-professional shooting situations (ie. family get togethers) where the lighting is sub par.

Here's the part I was talking about. On Thanksgiving, I asked Adam if he would mind trying the lens out by shooting some portraits of me. He's somewhat familiar with my camera (meaning, he knows how to push the shutter button), but I was really surprised at how well he did with the lens. 

My advice is, if you're looking for something fun to try and don't want to spend a fortune on what might end up being a novelty for you, then totally get the Spark. The cool thing is, you can actually add Lensbaby optics to this lens to change the effect! I already see a Composer Pro in my future...