Wednesday
May042011
pinhole # 1 ~ it has arrived
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 10:37AM 
My dashboard creatures • click to embiggenMy new hole arrived arrived today.
I'm really excited because it's not often that one can acquire a device that turns a relatively expensive high image quality camera into a Lomo/Diana/Holga-like device, albeit with much more picture making control - shutter speeds, IS, WB, accurate framing (no parallax issues), etc. - than the typical krappy kamera.
Oh joy.
Reader Comments (6)
I bought a lensbaby composer recently, and I have been having a lot of fun with it. I think one of the great things about these mirrorless cameras is the adapatability, and the creative options it opens up. I just need to be careful I don't spread myself too thin.
Am I to assume those creatures on the dashboard have infested your Suzuki?
I too recently acquired a LensBaby (well at Christmas... my wife got it off my wish list). It is kinda fun, but the novelty has waned pretty quickly. I also got the fish-eye optic which is OK but again, I really have not used it much.
Having a new way to look at things is nice but I agree with Scott... it can be a distraction too.
John
For the risk of outing myself as square/ignorant/whatever, I have to say that I can't remember any Holga/Lomo/etc image that really worked for me *because it was made with this technique*. On the contrary, with some images my feeling was "it would have worked better as a normal, straight photography". But I will continue to look and try to see, an epiphany is not impossible.
I bought a Lensbaby kit last year and have had fun with it but since February and buying a second home in Florida I haven't done much picturing hope to get back at it soon and visiting my favorite blog sites.
@ Markus - I have gotten a couple of pictures I think look better with the lensbaby than they would with a conventional lens, and a lot that would probably look better with a conventional lens. It takes some thought on composition to play to the strengths of the lens, and I am still learning. All of which is part of the fun for me.
The other pitfall to watch out for is the pictures becoming all about the technique. I see a lot of people that make work that is not that strong, but it looks different because of the technique used.
@Scott: I have no doubts that lensbaby images can be strong and the optical specialty supportive for the purpose of the image. But I was in a Michael Kenna exhibition last fall, and among the images where one or two Holga ones interspersed. They were o.k., however I couldn't resist trying to imagine if they really needed the effect.
Probably my reluctance comes from wading through too much pictures where the lensbaby/Holga/pinhole effects are not means but seem to be the target of the exercise. It's a bit like flower images: No doubt that excellent ones are possible, but they get drowned in seas of mediocre ones.