Something New

One of the things I love about photography is the ability to get as creative as I can and want, whether in camera or during post. I don’t do a whole lot to my pictures after the fact because I feel strongly about maintaining the integrity of what I have photographed however, there is a time and place for the sort of manipulation that happens with the click of a mouse. But that is probably a discussion for another day and I want to talk about some in camera magic.

Now, there are all kinds of things you can do with a camera in camera that have to do with the way an image is captured…dealing with the exposure and light and color, etc. And there are different sorts of lenses that do some way funky things because of design features that allow you to create some pretty cool optics. I have seen some amazing images taken with a Lensbaby and would love to play around with one but they come with a rather hefty price tag too.

But there are also things that give you the freedom to get creative that are surprisingly not expensive. Freelensing is what happens when you disconnect your lens from the camera body and instead hold it while you shoot through it. It makes for some dream like photographs and is pretty hard to nail without practice. I enjoy something called reverse lens macro. You remove the lense, flip it around and get really close to your subject and shoot through it. It’s a pretty neat effect.

I don’t go in much for trendy or gimmicky but I had seen this other fun way to play with an image as you take it that I wanted to try and man, I had fun! You shoot through a copper pipe and it adds some color tone changes and interesting textures and also isolates your focus a little bit. I know, I know, I am geeking out a bit and some of you are just like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, are you going to show us any pictures or not?”

Good news…I am! And hopefully you will enjoy them even if you scratch your head a bit and say something like, “These are pretty but I don’t get the pipe thing.” But that’s okay! I enjoyed the process and you can enjoy the end result, deal?

I can’t wait to try it out while taking a portrait but this time I used my oh, so lovely and uber cooperative African violet.

Isn’t it so dramatic looking? I loved the way the threads on the inside of the pipe created this spiral effect.

I also loved how it toned down the light and helped narrow the focus a bit.

Okay, that’s enough for now but you can expect to see more fun shots with the copper pipe in the future. For now, I have some fabulous family pictures from last week to get ready to share with you later this week and I am really looking forward to a session tonight with a family that will include some watermelon goodness and a really cute one year old.

Have a happy Monday, y’all, and try something new!