Mickey head Bokeh and the Osborne lights ~ Joanie Eddis-Koch

Using a specialized “Lens baby” set up with a custom aperture disk that I crafted myself, I was able to creatively capture The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, highlighting “Mickey head” shaped bokeh.

This shot was extremely difficult to get because the Lensbaby system is quite different from any other lens types and is completely manual as it has no workable articulations with a camera’s focusing systems. It also has no direct connection to a camera’s metering system but some cameras will still meter through the lens when using one of these lenses. You change the aperture on the lens by swapping magnetic disks, with different sized holes, in and out of the lens. Focusing is done by hand and you can tilt part of the lens to further alter the desired area of focus.

This particular Lensbaby Composer was the 50mm version with a maximum aperture of f/2 and a minimum focusing distance of 18 inches. The angle of view was 46°.

I found that using a tripod was essential both for the longer shutter speeds I needed to get the exposure correct and especially for the shallow depth of field that my aperture disk provided. The camera was set to center weighted metering and the shutter was open for 1/30 of a second. ISO was set to 640.

There was much back and forth between the camera settings, focus arrangements and subject matter to see if I could really make the bokeh pop as I captured some of the iconic scenes at the Osborne lights.

~Joanie Eddis-Koch

https://www.flickr.com/photos/marlton-mom/