Given a lot of traveling this year, with weddings as far as Singapore, and that we are more and more producing same-day slideshows and edits for our weddings (which you can see on my Facebook page), I figured we should ramp up our road warrior tools a bit, so I picked up the new 15-inch Core i7 Macbook Pro with higher-resolution anti-glare screen.
For this picture, I used a technique called “freelensing,” which I’ve been too nervous to do much of. Basically, by actually removing your lens from your camera before taking the picture and shifting it around, you can create strange, diagonal focus planes (like you see here), and also reduce your lenses’ minimum focusing distance (usually the 50mm f/1.2 AIS can’t get very close to its subject). It also means that I am going to have to make sure I or my assistants cleans my cameras sensors’ a LOT, since snapping photos without a lens on the camera is generally not recommended, and I usually keep effects like this to a minimum. But it’s a handy trick to know how to do. Up-and-coming photographer (and my Flickr pal) Gene Pease makes use of this trick really well.
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Heber Vega - Hi Ryan,
Thanks for posting this, long time ago that I was wondering about the existence of this trick. I’m pretty sure is what Nick Brandt used in his photography of Africa. I read once about it but then I read that he used a film camera, without lens connectors! so I was afraid to try it with my Nikon. Now not any more!
Thanks again,
Heber.
Ryan Brenizer - You’re still going to want to be careful, of course. Not the best during a dust storm.
DuĊĦan Smolnikar - Be careful, these i7 macbooks can get pretty hot. As cool as it may sound, I don’t think you’d want to light any shots with a burning macbook ;)
Mark - Sweet shot mate!! Def not a great idea for me living in country Australia!
Review of the MBP at all?
Gladstone - My high school photo teacher called this a “poor man’s macro.” I used to shoot these on film!
Annie - Gorgeous photos! I was a guest at Karen and Kamil’s wedding (and a friend of Lydia Chen) and really enjoyed how you captured the general geeky cool fun feeling of the wedding (and of all our friends LOL).