For you four faithful readers who’ve read this far…you know that one of my resolutions this year was engage in more creative endeavors.
I’ve always enjoyed photography. After college, I worked for a small-town newspaper (The Advance in Vidalia, if any of you care) and learned how to shoot photos on a Nikon FM-2, a completely manual SLR camera. My early photos were terrible, but over time, I got better at playing with light and angles and adjusting the shutter speed and aperture to get depth and interest in my photographs.
Since then, I’ve worked exclusively in marketing, but I’ve been sent to take photos in New Orleans, in Romania and in Canada. Always a blast. For some reason, though, I never had one of the old manual cameras for myself. I haven’t remedied that yet, but it’s on the list.
However, when I got my first iPhone, I bought an Olloclip — clip-on fisheye, wide and macro lenses that popped onto your phone. That phone and those lenses reignited my love of photography. It was like carrying around a full photography bag that fit in my pocket.
When I decided to be intentional about photography again, I went looking for the current model of Olloclip. Sadly, the company is defunct, but I was able to find an excellent lens set I started playing with last night.
For those who would like to check it out, it’s the Xenvo Pro Lens set (using my affiliate link). I’m really enjoying this lens set so far. If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment. I didn’t want to take a bunch of pictures of the product (this ain’t that kinda blog), but I do want you to see some of the photos this macro lens took (haven’t played as much with the wide angle yet).
Photos include close-ups of yours truly and the salt deposits on my office brick wall. The lenses are high-quality, and the kit also includes a clip-on LED light.
Really not bad for 40 bucks.
I’m stoked about playing around with these lenses over the weekend. I’ve yet to catch any plants with morning dew or play with perspective using the wide-angle lens. This excitement, this urge to get out of the house and look around, is one of the main reasons I wanted to do this again.
I know it’s still early January, and I know how these things fizzle out for most people, but for me, keeping the excitement means keeping the momentum.
As long as I’m looking forward to it, I’m bound to keep moving forward, too.
Leave a Reply