California Poppy detail, Antelope Valley, California

Ever feel like you’re in a photographic rut? Like the images just aren’t flowing through the lens and onto the sensor as easily as they should? New and stunning scenery will always help inspire the creative juices, but what if travel isn’t in the cards right now? Sounds like the perfect time to try out a new perspective and a great tool for this is the Lensbaby.

There’s no question that this is the oddest thing you’ll ever attach to the front of your camera, and using it is definitely a throw-back to the dark ages of photography with its completely manual focus and exposure. What started out as a toy-like novelty with a plastic lens and bellows has evolved into a series of high-quality tools each with a slightly different slant (pun intended). Basically its a limited use selective focus lens that mimics the look of a Holga camera with the added ability to move the sweet spot of focus to any desired part of the frame and vary the depth of the out of focus areas. Mounts are available for all major DSLR models and a macro kit is also available.

This is a fun lens to use and creatively its application is unlimited. So the next time you find yourself in creative funk, give this little gem a try and see the world in a whole new light.

Here’s another image from our recent Southern California wildflower trip made near Gorman in the Angeles National Forest. It was fun to experiment with slow shutter motion blurs (a good creative outlet when the wind is blowing!) and the variety of colors made for some very impressionistic images.

It was banner year for the Antelope Valley poppies.  The El Nino winter followed by warm weather created ideal conditions for the California state flower. Waiting for the constant winds to subside is always the real challenge in capturing these delicate beauties.