While I was at Longwood Gardens photographing their amazing Christmas display, I took the opportunity to photograph the same tree and ornaments with three different lenses. In the past several months, I’ve added two Lensbaby lenses to my kit – a Lensbaby Velvet 56 and a Lensbaby Burnside 35. I’ve also replaced my 24-105 Canon lens with a Sony 24-70 lens.

By photographing the tree with different lenses, it gave me a chance to see how the different lenses work in the similar circumstances and helps me figure out when I should plan on reaching for one lens in my bag rather than another.

Here are the photos I took with my Lensbaby Velvet 56. The Velvet 56 is known for it’s soft focus and lovely bokeh. It’s one of my favorite lenses to use in the studio and I’m finding I like it more and more when I’m photographing outside of my studio as well. It has a minimum aperture of f 1.6.

Decorations in the Conservatory. Longwood Gardens, Christmas 2018 © 2018 Patty Hankins

These are the photos I took with my Lensbaby Burnside 35 lens. The Burnside 35 lens is known for it’s swirly bokeh effects and the vignettes it adds to the corners of your image. The minimum aperture on the Burnside 35 is f 2.8

Decorations in the Conservatory. Longwood Gardens, Christmas 2018 © 2018 Patty HankinsDecorations in the Conservatory. Longwood Gardens, Christmas 2018 © 2018 Patty Hankins

And finally the photos I took with my Sony 24-70 lens. This is a wide angle zoom lens with a minimum aperture of f 4. I just got this lens for my Sony A73 camera and my guess is it will be my walking around and photographing lens.

Taking these photos has helped me learn when I should be grabbing which lens out of my pack depending on what my vision for my photo is. Knowing my gear makes it so much easier to concentrate on the artistic side of photographing rather than having to always be thinking about the technical side.

6 Comments

Jan on December 17, 2018 at 7:33 pm

VERY interesting. Gorgeous colors to work with. Thank you. Have a wonderful Christmas.
- hankinslawrenceimages on December 20, 2018 at 9:39 am
  
  Thanks Jan! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas too
  - Henry Ruiz on December 31, 2018 at 12:59 pm
    
    Lovely, lovely….Thank you for sharing your great works. I like the results of the Sony 24-70 MM. I have one as well for my Sony 7R111. What were your settings at what mm were they taken. I love it when PRO’s like you show the settings, basics for novices to take off on. You are very good!!!
    Henry
    
    I joined you when you were a guest speaker at a Virginia Beach Shutterbug meeting, been linked to you since.
    - hankinslawrenceimages on December 31, 2018 at 2:13 pm
      
      Henry – so glad you find my posts helpful. I’m currently using the Sony A7III – decided I didn’t need the 7RIII.
      
      The first photo with the 24-70 was taken at f 5.6 at 55 mm, ISO 3200
      Second photo was at f4 at 56mm, ISO 3200
      Third photo was at f8 at 55mm, ISO 3200
      Fourth photo was at f5.6 at 58mm, ISO 3200
      Fifth photo was at f 5.6 at 55mm, ISO 3200
      
      All were handheld. All with Auto-Focus. All with Aperture Priority. These were taken on a weekend morning when there were a couple of breakfasts with Santa scheduled. So I knew to leave my tripod at home. The ones taken with the lensbaby lenses were taken on a different day when I could use my tripod.
      
      Hope this helps 🙂
Cindy on December 18, 2018 at 3:48 pm

Thanks for these comparisons. I would say, that photos in which the lens effects are obvious ( circular) are my least favorite.
- hankinslawrenceimages on December 20, 2018 at 9:40 am
  
  Glad you found it helpful. I was surprised at how much I liked the photos I took with Burnside 35 (the circular effect). I’m still working with the lens to figure out it fits into my photography 🙂

One Tree, Three Lenses – Christmas at Longwood Gardens 2018

6 Comments