Lensbaby, stars, fishes and hearts

Christmas tree decoration in the Barranco Guiniguada, between Triana and Vegueta

I want to have a break from all things hiking and show some of the experiments with Lensbaby. I took it out of its little bag where it was left undisturbed for a looong time because I thought I should sell off the stuff I never use.

My Lensbaby is a first primitive Composer, fully manual, move-it-as-you-like, no-one-knows-what-s-gonna-come-out type. I must say the focusing is really tricky, especially in the poor light.

Benmore Botanic Gardens

When we visited Benmore Botanic Gardens couple of days ago, rhododendrons were in bloom. Even without them, gardens would be great, but it was a big bonus. I definitely recommend a visit, if you are on Cowal. They are a little bit more expensive than Cambridge ones - £10 for family ticket against £8 for two adults - but then again, the parking is free at Benmore,  they are a lot bigger, more varied and have a lot better setting.

The only problem with them I see is that only part of the gardens is accessible for wheelchair users - the level one close to the river. Large portion of the grounds is one big steepish slope with many stairs and a viewpoint at the top

fly-in sunflowers

I rarely put my lensbaby on camera, which is a shame, but explainable by the fact that I tend to shoot with image stocks in mind and they are somewhat suspicious of unusual effects. but this sunflowers asked for it, I think.

Timur's attitude to posing is normal for majority of kids and many adults I know - that is, once you point your camera at them, they make a face (they won't describe it as making a face, but that's what it is). So to make him to change his expression to something more natural, I had to tell him something funny, which was "nobody expects the spanish inquisition!", and produced desired effect