Baby Photography, My Kids and the Ultimate Love: Another Baby in the Family

... well, not that type of baby, but rather a Lensbaby camera lens. For the most part, my studio is blessed with having everything it needs to capture chubby cheeks, innocent eyes and plump fingers. While at Keeble, the local photography store, talking to Garry "the Canon Man" Cohane about a finicky flash, I couldn't help but try out the Lensbaby Composer (sounds musical, but as you'll read on, it takes a conductor to orchestrate good images from this thing). Photographers swear by the creativity this lens inspires, so I thought why not?

If you've never seen one, it's hard to describe, so why bother, here's a picture:

If you thought capturing your kids was difficult with a normal camera/lens this thing brings new meaning to the effort. Let me elaborate:

Focus is performed manually. If you think that's not a problem, think about that while your kid is running full speed at you.
The aperture is set manually and by manual, I mean you pull out a disk (see picture above) with a magnet and drop in another one to block out the correct amount of light (i.e. f2.8, 4, 5.6, etc.). Toss in a diaper bag on one shoulder and a kid tugging on your leg, and well, you get the idea.
It pivots which is actually the secret, magic sauce. There's a ball joint, so you can literally angle the lens to create dreamy, blurred edges.
...then you need to manually focus - again! Pivoting can change the focus slightly so repeat and rinse. The process gives you a much greater appreciation for the hundreds of Japanese engineers who designed and built the auto focus mechanism/algorithms in your SLR.

So let me wrap up and say that this won't be finding much use with my typical toddler, pre-schooler clientele unless the parents use a tranquilizer gun on their kid. Sarcasm aside, it does provide some beautiful effects that are great for wedding, maternity and infant photography. And at $250, it's substantially less than my Canon L lenses that run well over a grand. Oh, and here's that dreamy effect produced by the Lensbaby (not Photoshop).