Why are you passionate about this topic?

I love the selective focus effects that lensbaby lenses produce. These are such fun lenses to take pictures of my everyday life. I love to take macros, landscapes, street photos as well. I shoot with my lensbaby lenses when I am looking to add some artistic touch to the pictures.

I love how different optics and lenses produce different effects. I like the composer pro with Sweet35 and Double glass optics for their sweet spot of focus surrounded by soft blur. I love the bent bokeh effect I get with these optics. I love Velvet56 for the velvety smoothness it gives to portraits and for its macro. Circular Fisheye is such a fun lens for landscapes and kids pictures. I love edge80 (80mm) optic for its slice of focus surrounded by blur. This is the optic I fell in love with initially.

When did you first learn this technique? Or, when did you first realize you liked this topic?

In 2014, I saw some of my favorite photographers use the lensbaby lenses and fell in love with their pictures. I read about these lenses and followed some great lensbaby photographer’s work for few months. I finally bought my first lens composer pro with sweet35 in summer of 2014. I got hooked very soon and started collecting other lensbaby lenses.

What are the tips you would share with anyone trying to achieve this technique?

I recommend mastering one lens at a time before moving on to the next.

When I got my first lens I practiced on stationary objects. I also shot when kids are fairly still, busy doing their favorite activity.

In the beginning it was easier for me to shoot straight especially with sweet35. Once I got hang of it I started tilting the lens.

I used narrow apertures like F4 or F5.6 initially to get sharp focus with moving subjects like kids or animals.

Practice, practice, practice. Taking up a daily or weekly lensbaby challenge helps in mastering these lenses.

What were the challenges for you in the beginning?

Initially I was a bit frustrated with the manual focus. I was shooting wide open. Eventually I found that I got better focus when I used f4 or f5.6 apertures with lensbaby lenses.

Sweet 35

Circular Fisheye

Edge80

Edge80

Edge80

Velvet56

Sweet35

Edge80

Sweet35 + Macro extender

Sweet35

About the photographer:

My name is Radhika. Photography is my passion and my hobby. I love to document life and create memories with pictures. I mostly take lifestyle pictures of my kids. I also shoot landscapes and macro.

Website. Facebook. Flickr.