A winter with burnside





WHEN THE COLD WIND BLOWS AND RATTLES THE WINDOW PANES OF MY DRAFTY OLD HOUSE AND SNOW GENTLY DANCES LIKE A WHITE WISPY DREAM THROUGH THE BONE CHILLING AIR, I GENERALLY PREFER TO HIDE INDOORS AND BUSY MYSELF WITH THINGS UNRELATED TO THE IMPENDING LONG, DARK WINTER.



but today was different.



Instead, I bundled up in several layers and hollered across the house to see if my two sons were ready to join me trudging through the snow to get to one of our favorite places - the deep, quiet forest about a mile away. Only a few things in life would actually convince me- a lover of warmth and light and hater of incessant abysmal weather- to trek through the entrancing forest this bitter cold day, and a new “toy” was one on them.



Lensbaby had contacted me about a month prior to test a revolutionary new lens they intended on launching in a couple months, to which, of course, I eagerly agreed. But I only had a little time to try it out, so to hell with the disagreeable weather and here we were, out in the thick of it- myself, my sons, my trusty Sony and my new friend - The Burnside 35.



I had only taken the Burnside out once prior to this particular day, and the weather then wasn’t exactly agreeable, either- dismal, foggy, drizzling and only ten or so degrees above freezing, we were all soaked and chilled to the bone within an hour and forced to head home. When I was told that the lens I was going to receive was a 35mm with similarities to the Twist 60 that I had recently purchased and fell in love with, I just assumed it would be easy enough to figure out.


Boy, was I in for a surprise. What was I thinking? This is Lensbaby, after all.



There was one caveat, however.



I didn’t really put much thought into it until actually mounting this solid, beautifully built lens to my A900- it had two sets of aperture diaphragms. That’s right- two different sets of aperture blades with two completely different outcomes, controlled manually by a simple brass slider.




It was like I had two lenses built into one. I’ve only heard about a couple vintage lenses sporting this trait, but here I was actually HOLDING one! This was going to be fun..



AND IT WAS.





but not without some beginner challenges...



Just like a kid given a jigsaw puzzle to solve without an actual picture for reference, I had to figure out on my own how to use each aperture ring. Given that both days I did test shots were overcast and gloomy, and I’m always one to appreciate a good, shallow depth of field, I kept the lens at a constant, wide f-stop of 2.8. But the next thing I was about to discover was how differently the Images looked depending on which set of aperture blades I was using.



By keeping the brass slider all the way down, both aperture rings are left wide open, producing a swirly background blur similar to that of the Twist 60. On the other hand, if I put the brass slider all the way up, the second aperture diaphragm closes in front of the first, creating a wider focal plane with vignetted, subtly out of focus edges, giving it a “burned” look.

Essentially, I could produce two completely different looking photos of the same subject, at the same exact time, with the same exact lens.



What a treat! The key is to know which setting works best for which scenario, and although I would be the first to admit that I don’t know nearly enough about what all this amazing lens has to offer, I can at least tell you what I’ve learned so far, so you have a bit of a picture to work with on your puzzle, so to speak.



In my opinion, I liked to keep the slider all the way down and the aperture wide open for close up portraits so I could get that mesmerizing, swirly bokeh that makes your subject look like it's popping out of the frame. For macro, I preferred the slider all the way up and the aperture wide because this gave it a nice, creamy background. For landscape, I would keep it at the same setting because in wide angle shots it produces "burned" edges with a mesmerizing, blurry vignette. Watch your focus; just like the Twist 60, the sharpest part of the image will be the center, so if you choose to put your subject anywhere else in the frame, make sure your points of focus look intentional.



Because I predominately shoot black and white, I know what to look for to get what I want. This lovely little piece of metal threw me a curve ball, however, sending me outside my happy little monochromatic comfort zone, and into an unexplored world of artistic opportunity. It felt good to push my creativity and try something new, especially this time of year when life can get mundane and boring. Scenes or objects I normally overlooked because of either the "been there, done that" approach, or, completely opposite, the excuse that it would take too much time to get it the way I wanted, no longer applied because I found myself stopping and seeing everything with new eyes. This lens fits perfectly into the Lensbaby family of having the innate ability to give you the opportunity to bare your soul and creative intellect at its fullest potential​



no matter how you look at it, this lens is a master of artistic versatility.



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