Exploration can be Good
Sometimes you need to step outside what you are doing
and play with something. Here is a small series of
pictures from last year that were shot with a bad
lens. On purpose.
I ordered this knock-off Leica lens from a russian
seller about 6 or 7 years ago. It wasn't the right
lens (I had ordered a collapsible 50) and the first
roll thru demonstrated a big problem - a lens element
had come unattached somehow and was causing havoc. I
was nothing less than thrilled. There was no way it
was going back.
I've used this lens a few times, but never been very
serious about exploring what it can do. Last year, as
part of a dance project with Ballet Bellevue, I put
that lens on and shot some dance pictures as part of
the larger project. I've done likewise several times
over the past year, but the results never really
seemed to fit into the larger set - they didn't feel
like they belonged.
Today I saw them in Lightroom as I was browsing. A
few tweaks and I was very happy. Here are a few...
An interesting effect - and they work great in color. I especially like the middle photo - I'm drawn to vertical compositions these days (80% of my shots are vertical for some reason) and this one works for me. Time to dig out that Fed lens... Cheers!