Urban Photography - Capturing Beauty in Daily Life

Last week I presented a workshop on urban photography to a camera club via Zoom. It was a new experience for me and although it took a long time to pull a 45-minute talk together with images, it was a good thing to do. It pushed me out of my comfort zone. I used to teach and give presentations but it has been decades since I used those muscles. Oh, and they wanted me to share images that were not exclusively Lensbaby, so you will see a combination here with a few of the key points from my presentation.

You really need to love to walk and explore

Walking with my camera helps me see my city in a new way and, as a result, I am more curious. Using different lenses also keeps the experience fresh. After using standard auto focus lenses that are often heavy, I learned that you need to travel light. I now go out with one lens, no tripod, and a comfortable backpack to lessen the weight. Since I discovered Lensbaby 10 years ago, I have many options that are lighter than my old lens.

Street life and human interactions

I took the below image in Tbilisi, Georgia, some years ago with my Canon 24-105 mm lens. I loved the rich colors, rustic setting, and the little girl entering the market in the building’s basement. I am personally shy about capturing people in my street photos, especially those of children, so I try to capture them in action.

When I came across this little girl, I was drawn in by the pink dress and her red hair, so I quickly captured this while she turned her head. Lucky shot. The photo below is one that I took at festival at the Seattle Center. Again, you can see the kids, but not most of their faces. In looking at these two photos, I realized that slowly my style was evolving from a straightforward image to one where I was trying to create a painting. Ultimately, I found a way to do that with Lensbaby lenses.

Architectural and urban landscapes

There are plenty of opportunities to capture interesting images of buildings, bridges, and streets art. I took this image in Palm Springs, and I think my Lensbaby Sweet 22 lens captured the leading lines, shadows, and pulls your eye to the center, which is where I wanted people to go.

Social issues and environmental aspects

Some people use urban photography to highlight social issues and environmental elements. I don’t personally focus on social issues, but I do enjoy capturing images of our environment, not to make a statement, but to appreciate its beauty.

Light

We are all looking for ways to combine the best light with our subjects, but that can be challenging depending on the time of the day, the location, and the subject, but it is terrific when it comes together. I love it when I can capture the Needle reflection on our MoPop museum.

Notice

Look around and notice what others might not see. I took this image in Greece mid-day. I loved the rustic door, seeing through to the building and the added benefit of the light reflection.

Color

Our downtown public library is a beautiful building with many interesting design elements, including bright colors. The brilliant yellow pulled my eyes down this escalator. Use color to your advantage.

Monochrome

Composing in camera on the monochrome setting is a great way to see how the lights and shadows will come out in your image. It can tell a different story from a color image.

This post is a snapshot of what I presented, but hopefully it will give you some ideas to pursue. I would like to leave you with something I learned from Jay Maisel, a well-known New York photographer, and that is to stay open to seeing what is in your environment while walking. And, remember to travel light - it will pay off.

If you are curious about Lensbaby lenses, look at their website. If you decide to purchase, use my Trailblazer code, wVipperman, for 10% off. I love hearing from you, so comment below, post on my Facebook page, follow me on Instagram, or email me at carol(at)carolvipperman.com. If you have any questions about photography, I would be pleased to answer them.

Please send me your name and email so you can receive my blog posts. I would be happy to add you to my list of followers. 

It is Time for Toys

It has been a minute since I wrote a blog post. Perhaps you haven’t missed them, but some people have. Life has been busy. I have been doing too much adulting this year and realized I missed the joy of taking toy photos. So now it is time for toys to bring that back into my life, especially post-election. I have nothing else to share besides these images, so please enjoy them; hopefully, they will make you smile.

Lensbaby Sweet 22 optic

Lensbaby Sweet 22 optic

Lensbaby Sweet 22 optic

Lensbaby Edge 50 optic

Lensbaby Sweet 50 optic with +4 macro filter

Lensbaby Sweet 22 optic

If you are curious about Lensbaby lenses, look at their website. I love hearing from you, so comment below, post on my Facebook page, follow me on Instagram, or email me at carol(at)carolvipperman.com. If you have any questions about photography, I would be pleased to answer them.

Please send me your name and email to receive my blog posts. I would be happy to add you to my list of followers. 

Another Gem: the Sweet 22 Lens

I love all my Lensbabies and how each helps me tell a different story, but I am always thrilled when they create new ones. It was a pleasant surprise to find their latest Sweet22 Pancake lens for mirrorless cameras in my mailbox last fall. As the name implies, it is a fixed-aperture (f3.5) lens with a small area of focus and a large amount of blur. If you are a photographer like me, who likes a sharp focus with blur, this is the lens for you.

1/3200 | f3.5 | 100

Take a look at this short unboxing video that will give you all of the features of this lens. By the way, you will see three of my photos in it, which I thought was pretty cool.

To be transparent, I have a Canon EOS R, and because this lens captures images wide open, I get a purple vignette when the light is bright. I understand this isn't true for other camera manufacturers, but for some reason, that is how it is with Canon. Still, I have learned to work with purple by converting my images to black and white, desaturating them, or embracing all the colors in my pictures. I like the flexibility this gives me. Another option I learned about recently is adjusting your cropping/aspect ratio in your camera menu settings from a full frame to another ratio, which will crop out the purple vignette. I tried it, and it does help.

1/2000 | f3.5 | 100

1/80 |f3.5 | 250

One of the things I like about this lens is that it is lightweight, making it a tremendous walk-around option. In addition to my morning walks, when I usually take my photos, I could stick it in my purse to take images throughout the day. That was a real plus, as I rarely have my camera with me due to its weight and size unless it is in my backpack.

A challenge was capturing images where the subject was in the distance. The subject seemed too small, but changing the crop/aspect ratio fixed this! Medium-distance and close-up photos worked wonderfully on full-frame. I discovered I could get up to 5 inches from my subject and get great close-ups without a filter. Adding a +4-macro filter brought me even closer, which was terrific. I experimented with changing the aspect ratio to take close-ups, which also worked well.

1/2500 | f3.5 |100

1/60 | f3.5 | 125

I was surprised at how well it captured flowers, one of my favorite subjects. I could get sharp in-focus centers with the lovely blur merging outwards. I look forward to using this lens this spring and summer.

1/80 | f3.5 | 400

1/60 | f3.5 | 200

And since I enjoy toy photography, I was happy to see how it worked with my little subjects. I experimented using the lens without a macro filter and found that it created a different story than when I added the +4 filter. I appreciate having the option depending on the scene I am trying to make.

1/80 | f3.5 | 250

1/125 | f3.5 | 100

The more I played with the lens, the more I wanted to keep it on my camera at the expense of my other lovely Lensbabies. So, I am glad the day has come when the lens is available to the public, and I can openly share my images with the world. Thank you, Lensbaby, for another gem.

1/80 | f3.5 | 250

If you are curious about the Sweet 22 or other Lensbaby lenses, look at their website. I love hearing from you, so comment below, post on my Facebook page, follow me on Instagram, or email me at carol(at)carolvipperman.com. If you have any questions about photography, I would be pleased to answer them.

Please send me your name and email to receive my blog posts. I would be happy to add you to my list of followers. 

Introducing the Double Glass II

Over the last few months, I have been testing a new optic from Lensbaby - the Double Glass II. Today they announced it to the world! I have been waiting for the launch, so that I could share my images and reactions to the optic. The bottom line - I. Love. It.

Like the Soft Focus II, this optic has drop-in aperture disks that transform lights into shapes. Nine disks come with the optic, but I found that I gravitated to a few favorites.

Sunburst Disk

Whirlpool Disk

Diamond Disk

Honestly, I love the Double Glass Optic without the disks. The colors, blur, and the mood it creates are so beautiful. The optic has a full range of fstops from f2.5 to f22. I loved shooting these images wide-open at f2.5.

If you are curious about the Double Glass II or other Lensbaby lenses, look at their website. You can use my discount code, wVipperman, for an additional 10% off. (Not available for use purchasing new lenses, sorry.) I love hearing from you, so comment below, post on my Facebook page, follow me on Instagram, or email me at carol(at)carolvipperman.com. If you have any questions about photography, I would be pleased to answer them.

Please send me your name and email if you want to receive my blog posts. I would be happy to add you to my list of followers.