The Travelling Lens Project | Summer Freelensing | Creative Wedding and Family Photographer, Cambridgeshire
Working on personal projects has become invaluable to me as a photographer as a way to develop my craft and discover or experiment with new ideas. Some of these may be introduced in my client work, but often I like to go with no expectation other than a chance to dig deeper into my subjects and find stories I like to connect with and learn more about.
After participating in a couple of travelling dress projects last year, I was invited to join in another creative project with a fantastic group of fourteen women photographers in a travelling lens project. Our photography group all had one thing in common - we all love to freelense (the technique of detaching the lens from an SLR camera). Each of us got to experiment in our freelensing with the Voigtlander 58mm lens.
The project was a year in the making. The lens had travelled from Canada, across the United States before reaching me in England and finally back to Canada. I was the only British photographer in the project. I received the lens this summer in August and quickly took it out to use and practice. Unlike the quality of my other Nikon lenses, the Voigtlander lens feels more solid with its metal construction, but still lightweight in the hand. It produces amazing light leaks and dreamy bokeh when used for freelensing, which you can see in the photos below.
A few of us have shared our photos on Instagram, which you can view under the hashtag #ourtravellinglens.
Family beach photography at Wells-next-the-sea, Norfolk
Building sandcastles and swimming in the sea.
Nature exploring at RSPB Rye Meads
Pond dipping and walking around the nature reserve with some friends.
Portraits
I took some portraits of my friend Leila and her little boy while we were at Rye Meads. Leila had organised the original Travelling Mustard Dress project, which is still ongoing and you can see here. I did not get to collaborate with her to create some portraits together in that dress project, so decided it was fun to do something similar for the travelling lens project. Her little boy joined in some of the photos and I captured the natural interactions between the both of them.
Self-portraits and black and white beach photographs
These last sets of photographs were taken on a second visit to the Norfolk coast. I wanted to have a go at creating some freelensed self-portraits, which I did using the self-timer on my camera.
The black and white photographs were just some interesting details that caught my eye when the tide went out on the beach.
These photos are also my contribution to our summer edition of the Free 52 project. Visit the next artist, Melissa Clemons Photography, to see her freelensed images from her summer adventures.