Time to reveal the March image for the 2025 Photography 139 Calendar:
MARCH
TECHNICAL DETAILS
CAMERA: Sony 7M4
LENS: 14-24 Sigma f/2.8 DG DN Art
FOCAL LENGTH: 24mm
APERTURE: f/8
EXPOSUER: 1/800
ISO: 400
DATE: June 12, 2024
I took this picture because I wanted a Bokeh picture to enter into the Iowa State Fair Photography Salon. It took 3 different photo sessions before I got the image that I wanted. Or as close as an artist ever gets to their real vision. Art is never finished after all, only abandoned. On one of these sessions, Becca was the photo assistant. Shoutout Becca! What you might not realize is that the hardest part of this image was getting it without a reflection. For the most part Bokeh would hang out on top of the window long enough for me to get a few images. But battling reflections in the glass took some tinkering with the setup. Hint: The solution ended up involving blankets.
I chose a fairly small aperture to keep as much of the image in focus as possible. I used a relatively fast shutter speed to freeze any motions Bokeh made. I overexposed the image by nearly a full stop to try capture Bokeh as bright as possible, but without fully blowing out the sky.
I picked this image to represent March because Bokeh’s birthday is in March. Check your calendar if you doubt me. (Sorry to people that the USPS lost their calendar.)
This was by far the most popular image from the 2025 Photography Calendar. Here are the people that picked it as their favorite:
Andy
Harrison
Brandon
Jay
Jorge
Kim
Kio
Micky
Nader
Olivia
Sara and Gretchen
Scott
Vest
Bill
Tomorrow I will reveal the April image. I’m so excited. I can barely hide it. Fair chance I will lose control. I think I’m moderately enjoying it.
+++++++
I’m efforting to get better at sharing when I add new equipment to the arsenal. I’m not a big equipment nerd. I’m about the craft and not about the equipment. But like (and I can’t stress this enough) all art, the equipment you have does have a say in what you make. But what I really like are nerdy manual focus lenses with limited purposes.
I’m sure at least one other photographer thought, “Why doesn’t he just say Lensbaby lenses?”
And you got me hypothetical photographer friend. The most recent piece of glass I’ve added is indeed a Lensbaby lens. For the last few years it has been traditional for me to give my self a Lensbaby lens for Christmas. However, unless they release some new lenses, I’m probably just about out of Lensbaby lenses I can buy. Maybe this Christmas it will be a 7Artisans lens.
If we are being honest, I do totally have the 7Artisans website up on a different monitor right now thinking about their new 60mm f/2.8 2x macro lens. So that might be my birthday present to myself. Or maybe that will be Bokeh’s birthday present to me. I can tell she really wants me to have that lens.
But we’ve gathered here today, to get through this thing called “life”. And the most recent lens I’ve purchased from Lensbaby to get me through life is the Sweet 22.
This is what the bad boy looks like:
If you were to go to the Lensbaby website for a description of this lens you would read something like this:
The Sweet 22 pancake lens from Lensbaby features the smallest sweet spot with the most blur outside the sweet spot of any Lensbaby lens. With a compact, robust metal body and built-in focus down to 5 inches from the front element, this new mirrorless-only creative effects lens brings dramatic optical effects to stills and video imagery that have never before been possible.
The tiny, tack-sharp, centered sweet spot created by the Sweet 22 gives a sense of motion to still images while creating dramatic focus transitions of moving subject matter coming into or out of the Sweet 22’s sweet spot when shooting video. A sea of impressionistic blur gradually transitioning to a precise, tack sharp sweet spot gives photographers the chance to create imagery more dramatic than previous selective focus lenses.
And if you were a big equipment nerd, you might click on the specs and read something like this:
Focal Length: 22mm
Primary Effect: Spot of Focus
Optic Swap Compatible: No
Aperture: f/3.5 fixed
Circular Aperture: Yes
Minimum Focusing Distance: 127mm (5.0in)
Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1:5
Filter threads: 46 mm
Format Compatibility: 35mm Full Frame; APS-C
Camera Compatibility: MIL cameras
Focus Type: Manual Barrel Focus
Diagonal Angle of View: Full Frame: 90°; APS-C (1.5x): 64°
Angle of Tilt: N/A
Diaphragm Blades: None
Elements/Groups: Zone Plate: 4 elements / 2 groups
Coating: Broadband multi-coated anti-reflective
But since all of you are nerds, but nerds of a different flavor, you just want to see a picture taken with it. So here is a collection of the first few pictures I took with the new sweetness… The Sweet 22:
You might be wondering why I bought a lens with such a peculiar purpose that produces images that are destined to be unpopular. And if that is the case:
1. You must be new here.
2. I have no doubt I’m going to take some bomb images with the new sweetness. Even if it is only in my mind.
You will just have to stay tuned.