Lensbaby

Deal with the Devil

Deal with the Devil
Canon A2, Lensbaby, Ilford FP4+

Back in 2010 I bought a Lensbaby. I was in love with the selective focus and the creamy bokeh… and wasted so many shots because of it. I took me a long time to recognize and admit that selective focus is pointless in most scenes. But a few years ago, I was due to take some family portraits and decided to shoot film portraits with the Lensbaby… and loved the results. Last summer I took a lot of shots of various friends and family, four rolls of Ilford 4+ in all. We had a few accessories during one of those sessions, and Clément’s dark skin, with the top hat and the grin made for a positively devilish photo.

Bass in the Dark

Bass in the Dark
Canon 7D + Lensbaby, 80mm, f/4, 1/100s, ISO 800

When I revisit old concert shots, I occasionally stumble upon some under-exposed ones that seem to have potential. Instead of trying to get the exposition corrected, I sometimes go deeper into underexposition to try and get a mood out of them. This is a photo of bassist Gilles Coquard at a Sébastien Charlier concert. It was shot with the lensbaby, and I like how the silhouette is picked up by a tiny bit of backlighting. I think it works, but I’m not quite sure and I’d certainly like to hear what you think.

Avishai’s Glow

Avishai’s Glow
Canon 7D + Lensbaby Composer, f/4, 1/125s, ISO 500

I’ve started working on a book project showing my favourite B&W concert shots and talking about the musicians and why I love their music. I was sorting through the photos of an Avishai Cohen gig from 2010 when this shot came up. It was in color, but I tweaked a nice B&W and I think it works a treat. Edited in Lightroom with x-equals’ XeL 2.0.