How the Lensbaby broke through my photographer’s block

November 6, 2008

If you’ve paid attention here or at my Flickr stream, you may have noticed that I haven’t been taking many photos lately. I can’t blame it on being too busy to shoot (although that would be a convenient excuse), instead I can chalk it up to a simple case of photographer’s block.

I was feeling stuck. I looked at the work that friends and peers were making with their cameras, and I would feel like I had a very heavy and very expensive millstone hanging from my neck. I toyed with the idea of selling all my gear and switching to an inexpensive point and shoot, because I was convinced that no matter how often I shot, nor the number of memory cards I filled, my good shot to bad shot ratio was still and always would be uneven.

Then I bought a Lensbaby Composer, and I started to literally see my photographs in a different light. I spent two hours walking around my neighborhood with the Lensbaby attached to my D300, and every shot was a surprise. I felt freed from the restrictions of photography — always making sure that your photos are tack sharp, in focus, and perfectly composed. Instead of feeling like a chore, I actually enjoyed the time I spent with my camera today, and that’s something that has been missing for my photography for a long time.

I don’t know that I’ll ever be a technically proficient photographer, and these days I’m not even sure if I should aim for that goal anymore. As of now, I’m thrilled with the results I’m getting from the Lensbaby, and I know it’ll be a permanent part of my photographer’s kit from here on out.