Today was another nice day at Alki Beach, so I headed out to make some photographs. This time I only took my Lensbaby Composer with the double glass optics on the D700. While I’m essentially a pet photographer, I do like to stray a bit sometimes. This was one of those occasions. I thought I might do some black and white processing when I got back, so I shot with that in mind.

Here are some of the B&Ws I ended up with.

The image below shows how difficult it can be getting the lensbaby in focus. I had hoped the bolt on the right was going to be tack sharp.

 
I’m not sure which treatment I like better of the two shots below. What do you think?

This little guy was left on this post by somebody with a sense of humor.

 
More of Alki’s charm.

 
And I couldn’t leave without photographing at least one dog.

Last weekend I took my new Lensbaby out for a test drive. I left all my other lenses at home, and headed to a nearby AKC dog show. I was using the standard “Double Glass” optic, which when focused correctly provides prime lens sharpness in the sweet spot. However, getting that focus proved to be quite a challenge, as my 51 year old eyes do not see as well as they used to. The Lensbaby is a manual focus system, and if the diopter on your camera’s viewfinder is not dialed in perfectly, the images end up looking like the sweet spot is a myth. I was lucky and got a few keepers. Just don’t look too closely.

This was an adorable Westie puppy.

He looks bored.

This girl was just here to watch the show dogs.

Another Westie getting primped for the ring.