What is a Lensbaby selective focus lens?

Summer picnic 1, originally uploaded by Otto Phokus.

I thought I might as well keep posting tonight while I am thinking about these things I have been wanting to blog about.

Look at this picture and you see the center of the picture is in focus and both sides are out of focus, there you go, selective focus. You manually squeeze the lens, or compress the lens in and out, back and forth until you find your sweet spot. This picture I used a 2.8 aperture diaphram that you have to manually insert into the lensbaby lens. And then all the settings are manual, like the speed... there is not Auto Focus, or Otto Phokus in my pun of a name.

This is a soft looking blur, not quite as sharp as some of the higher aperture disks. I thought for this party since I will be inside and outside, and overcast day I will use a lower aperture that lets in more light. Well I did get some good pictures, but I think of my pictures as little paintings, that some day I will get to watercolor, or paint when I have the time years from now.

I heard one person speak of a similar photo/composition he took with this depth of field, focus, and he stated that he could get a picture of his three son in focus playing baseball. The pitcher, batter, and catcher, all in focus, where normally they would not all be in focus.

I have a lot of fun using this lens the lensbaby 2.0, and the lensbaby 3G for static multiple shots you have to set up or compose, and I also have the macro lenses, the wide angle, and 1.6x telephoto adapter for the lensbaby lens. I haven't used a regular lens since I have this now almost 8 months, and I have some nice regular lenses. To me it makes digital photography a lot of fun.

Marigold flower unopened

Marigold flower unopened, originally uploaded by Otto Phokus.

It's amazing what pictures people like, you can't even guess it right, you just have to put up your best, and a lot of variety, and see what takes off. I happen to like this one, the bokah, blur, and colors of this picture; and someone else marked it as a favorite too.

Frozen Pond Fun

Frozen Pond Fun, originally uploaded by Otto Phokus.

As you can see the Pond is frozen over, and it is being cleared for ice skating and ice hockey. I am also using this picture as my first test post from Flickr to blog. Photrade is having a hard go of it since they lost all there funding as a result of the current financial crisis, and it's a coin toss as to how long they can keep going. Flickr is the premier picture site anyway, so I am just going to upload to there from now on.

Taking pictures with my Lensbaby, and new Car

I was at a picnic Saturday, took about 250 pictures with the Lensbaby 2 lens,and f 2.8 aperture disk, with 1.6x telephoto. Not many keepers in the bunch (series), still weeding through them all. Artistically I like some of them, but they are not in the normal sense, to the average person, the idea of what a picture should look like. A lot of blur/bokah (selective focus), and softness.
I choose the wrong aperture. I should of went with f5.8 or higher. I thought with the overcast, lowlight, indoor ,and outdoor change of shooting scene, the 2.8 aperature would give me a lot of light to work with, but it also gave me more blur and softness, when I wanted more strong focus. Plus the fact I am shooting from the hip, not composing many shots, and then the indoor lighting giving the yellowish tint, I should of changed my camera setting to reflect the indoor lighting but forgot. Even with the 1.6x telephoto, it is still bascially a foot zoom lens, meaning you have to move with your feet to focus, rather than moving the lens, so sometimes you get the picture, and sometimes you don't. I should of known the 2.8 aperture was too low, so unless I have the time to compose the picture, take my time, and review afterwards, I will go with f/4 or above from now on.

Bought my new car on Wednesday. A 2008 Suzuki SX4 Sport. 0% financing. Took about 1 1/2 hours at the dealer to seal the deal, and then I drove home, and got a ride back in to pick up the new car. The car has everything I was hoping to get when I started my search. I will have to write more on this later, especially the fact that the Ford Focus looks strikingly similar to the Suzuki SX4 Sport. Just like my Suzuki 2 door Vitara, looks like a Chevy Tracker. In both cases I got the better deal with Suzuki. Once the weather clears up I will post some pictures of my new car.