I want to take a moment to acknowledge the people that design the equipment we photographers use on a daily basis. Someone had to come up with the initial idea and follow it with the mathematics, science, and whatever else goes into creating these tiny sculptures that allow for art to be created! It's truly amazing to think someone was behind making them! 

So why am I talking about this? A couple week ago, I added the Lensbaby Velvet 85 to my bag and to give a brief and slightly embarrassing story, I remember when Lensbaby first announced the Velvet 56 in 2015. I was impartial to it and wasn't really a fan of the glow effect it gave the photos, so I brushed it off still hoping for an Edge 35. (Still keeping my fingers crossed for that one!) Then the Velvet 85 came out and all I saw people using if for was flowers and that really wasn't my forte so again, I paid no mind to it. 

Fast forward to now...

Umm.... Can I just go back in time and slap myself? 

I started seeing more people expanding past flowers and using it for more of lifestyle and portraits and thinking to myself, why was I being so stubborn in thinking it could only be used for flowers? My favorite art is the impressionist era and those different styles of "slightly out of focus" and soft forms are so inspiring to me that I'm not sure how I didn't see this before, but the Velvet 56 & Velvet 85 are very similar to what my favorite artists did in their paintings. And now, because of Lensbaby, I'm able to achieve this similar look, just in my form of art. 

All the images below were done with the Lensbaby Velvet 85, either set at F1.8 - F2.8 for the maximum amount of glow. And if you're wondering why I choose the Velvet 85 over the Velvet 56 is because I prefer the compression of the 85 mm focal length. It just fits my style better when my main lens is the Sigma 85 1.4. (Sorry for those who have no idea what I'm talking about! I'm a nerd for specs and info like that.)

Thank you Keri for again modeling for me! You're amazing! Thank you Keri at Lensbaby for being the amazing supporter you are! And finally, huge thank you to Bruce for letting us use your amazing building! Thank you, thank you, thank you!