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| Maybe it was the water that I just drank but I'm seeing Japanese. |
I can still remember how I took this image. It was a yellow drenched
afternoon and the tea leaves were turning Japanese. It felt like
everything was at a stand-still. I kept on rotating the camera until I
got the right composition. At that moment, I pressed the shutter. The
sound of it reminded me of Jackie Chan's kung fu moves -- swift and
crisp. I was in love with my camera and the tea tree.
I shot this image using the Lensbaby. This was back in 2008 when I started to take photography seriously. I already had a digital SLR that I got around 2005 but I was only taking pictures of my daughter and our two cats. What got me interested in shooting other things was when I discovered the Lensbaby. It's a dopey little lens that can be manipulated to blur out a desired area anywhere in the frame.
With the Lensbaby, the camera had to be operated in manual mode. It was all low tech, which I also love. It taught me how to shoot without training wheels. Back then, I bought the Lensbaby for around $60. Nowadays, they go for almost $400. I guess the folks at Lensbaby got greedy.
Yes, that lo-fi lens put the mojo on me to get serious into art photography. One of these days I'll have to take the original Lensbaby out for a spin again. In the meantime, here's an oldie that I hope you may enjoy. Cheers.