Like it or hate it...I'm having a blast.

I'm not very good at making my figures fly through the air but I thought I'd try a leap.

The easiest way to do this, is put a small piece of wire up their bum and position it so it isn't too obvious. Then take it out in post process. You can actually see it a bit in the upper shot, but it looks so close to the grass I decided just to get rid of the obvious bit.

I am however one of those that are always curious no matter what. I recently got a great deal on something called a Lensbaby. This is considered an 'Art' Lens. These lenses have always fascinated me and I've always wanted to try one. I went with a used Sol 22. It is tiny and it can be a real pain or really cool.

It is a manual focus lens with only an f3.5 aperture. In short, it demands your attention when using it. Many photographers don't see the point of this kind of lens and then there are those who absolutely are wild fans of them. Many say ... well I can just do this post process!

But what it you don't have to do any fancy work? What if it is enough to challenge yourself and try something out of the norm?

All I did here was crop the photo just a bit. The orangish color is from the Ulanzi lights I used to help set the mood to a color to highlight the feeling of rusty junk behind Wall-E and Eve.

I picked these 2 up at a Dollar Store over a year ago and couldn't for the life of me figure out what I wanted to do with them until I felt like experimenting with the Sol 22.

The lens let me make Wall-E the focus of the subject matter with his sad looking face. Eve is obviously there and comforting Wall-E. She is part of the 'story' yet not the main focus.  Anyway, that is how I see it.

This next shot is of Donder. He is a Luggan and I really am not sure what his back story, but he comes labeled as a Luggan from 'Acid Rain'. Apparently in the future, the world as we know it is washed away and destroyed by Acid Rain. There are a lot of figures created around this story.  Donder was interesting and bizarre enough to catch my attention.

In my story... Donder hooks up with the MiniBots to create or find a way to get out of horrors of the world that has gone nuts. 
He and the MiniBots find worm holes and rips in time to transport themselves and anyone else who is willing to pay to leave.

Of course worm holes and rips in time aren't things you can predict....but Donder doesn't really care.

I thought I'd use the Sol 22 with Donder and try something out of this world for lighting. The Lensbaby would focus on Donder and the rest would ... well you can see...

I had a crazy idea of using bubble wrap with mini lights taped to it as a background.

The result was so amazing, that I had to use it in a few more scenarios.

Here is my favorite shot of the experiment.

I used side lights of a yellowish glow to highlight Ailie.

Ailie and Rabbit at the Worm Hole... [not shot with the Lensbaby lens]

One thing led to another and now I'm taking this mini lens with me to figure it out. Manual focus can be hard as well as composing with this lens. In fact there are a LOT of times I wouldn't use it, but it is great for slowing down my thinking process and making me more aware of compositions while using it.

Last but not least. A landscape shot with it.

I didn't like it at first. But it does give me a feeling of huge expanse of the ridge I visit often.

I am embracing this new challenge. Quite fun.