Foto Alexandra

Books are a uniquely portable magic.
~ Stephen King

After moving from Finland to the US a couple of years ago I was finally at a point in my life where I had the time to work on my personal photography projects.  Having the time did not, however,  translate into the beautiful and well executed photo shoots I had been dreaming about doing.  I hit a total mental block.  My creativity was nowhere to be found.  I spend too much time comparing my work to everyone else’s and their cousin’s and felt like I could never be as good or as original.

 

I’ve been photographing a little over 10 years and although I’ve had my dry seasons I’ve never  experienced such a  terrible creative slump.  I was ready to throw in the towel and sell my gear.  My once passionate love affair with photography had slowly died.  Fortunately, while once again admiring other people’s work, I stumbled upon some images taken with the Lensbaby lenses and was intrigued.  Something about the dreamy, surreal look of the images really struck a chord with me.

 

I decided to give it a go.  I bought the Composer Pro with Sweet 50 optic and have been slowly rekindling my love affair with photography ever since. I’ve never owned a manual focus lens so, there is definitely a learning curve.  I found that by practicing first with still objects it became easier to shoot portraits as well.  I got my baby a little over a year ago and have hardly used any other lens since.  I love the fact that by creatively using the lens, I can already see my vision of the image actualizing right there in the camera, instead of spending hours and hours in post-processing.

 

I feel so grateful to be inspired and shooting more meaningfully again.  I do love books (and Stephen King), but dare to say I love my Lensbaby more (…or maybe it’s just a different kind of love).  For me, my Lensbaby sweet 50  is pure portable magic.