Unbelievable Madagascar September 14–October 1, 2007
				India Wildlife: On the Trail of the Tiger November 7–24, 2007
				Angkor Wat & Bagan—Temples of Cambodia and Myanmar January 17–31, 2008

When I want to take my photography in new directions, I use all sorts of resources—ideas from friends, how-to articles, images I notice online or in publications—but the most fruitful source for new ways of shooting consists of just fooling around. Play softens boundaries and allows me to escape from habits, which often produces unexpected results and opens new avenues. While messing around with color infrared film, I stumbled across an effective way to create striking portraits. I found I liked very low perspectives when I literally rolled on the ground amid a pack of semi-tame wolves. Lately, my toy of choice has been the Lensbaby.

A Lensbaby is an inexpensive ($96) lens mounted on a cylindrical plastic bellows. It mimics the effect of the Holga toy camera, a plastic lens box camera that produced ethereal images by throwing most of the picture out of focus. With the Lensbaby, one focuses by extending or compressing the bellows and varying the angle (like a tilt/shift lens) to bring one part or another of the frame into relative focus. It comes standard as an f/5.6 lens. To change the aperture, the photographer must install one of several aperture rings (f/2.8; f/4; and f/8) in the lens to get greater or lesser depth of field. I find that the standard aperture works well most of the time, giving me a nice blur. Since the aperture is fixed, use manual, program, or aperture priority.

I love the effect. It would take hours in Photoshop^© to replicate a Lensbaby image, and that would miss the element of surprise. Assuming the background is colorful, the lens swirls and streaks it like a soft focus prism. In a successful shot (expect lots of failures when shooting in an uncontrolled environment), the primary subject stands out dramatically or bits of the image stay sharp amid a wash of color.

I used the Lensbaby extensively on a recent trip to Laos and Vietnam. Because it’s lightweight, I didn’t hesitate to walk through villages and around city streets with it snapping hand held shots.

It even works for some landscapes.

Digital invites experimentation. I’ve tried all kinds of low-percentage shots while shooting digitally where the cost of film may have restrained me in the past. Now I just delete the “failures” and try again. Attempting to follow-focus while panning doesn’t work often, but I like the results.

You can add wide-angle, macro and telephoto conversion lenses. I opted for the Digital Optics .45x conversion kit ($76), which includes macro capability. The lens screws onto the front of the Lensbaby to produce a 22mm lens. While the extra weight causes the Lensbaby to droop comically, I consider this an essential accessory. Take care when focusing the wide-angle. If the lens moves too far to the side, the curve of the lens barrel blocks light to create a dark crescent on one side of the image.

Lensbabies are available for Canon, Nikon, Leica, Contax, Olympus and standard screw mount cameras. For more information, including extensive galleries of Lensbaby images, go to www.lensbabies.com.