Technically I am a tad late, but it is still dark, thus I consider myself being on time. In a way 🙂
What’s new? Well, I arrived from Vienna yesterday evening, and surprisingly my MC-36 shutter release cord has arrived from the UK as well. Expensive but in very short time. I guess I’ve ordered on Monday and we must not forget that it’s just before Christmas. A salute to the Royal Mail!
This image is from a restaurant in Vienna, where I was out to lunch yesterday. It was not really sunny, but not overcast either, one of these in-between winter days, and I sat in this restaurant, seeing over my friend’s shoulder the figure of this Frenchman used as window decoration, along with some red colored bundles of reed. It’s “Kitsch”, but in a way I liked it.
The image is again shot with the Lensbaby, wide open at f2. Sure, it is a challenge to focus that way and many of these photos are not entirely sharp, but that is nothing I care for. In fact I like the smeared look, the sometimes painterly quality, and it is wide open, when the Lensbaby really excels as a creativity device.
It is interesting to see how one’s opinions change. When I first saw the Lensbaby presented on the Radiant Vista, I thought, “Nice effect, but it will get old real fast. A gimmick, forget about it”. I am not so sure now. Yes, it is a gimmick, but it is so incredibly good in concentrating the viewer on a certain area of the image, in hiding things you can’t get rid of, regardless how you frame the image, in simplifying the image, that I have turned to being quite a fan instead. Funny, isn’t it?
Ted Byrne (2006-12-31)
that is the point. I could be gimmick. So could, say, a paint knife to an oil painter. Or awide mouth chisel to a marble sculptor. If the seams show... it is a gimmick. But if they don't it is a tool. Here, you make it a tool. I am not distracted by the effect, rather I am delighted by the image. I had no idea how you did it. I did not care until you told me. Now I care.
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