I belong to this really awesome photography group on Facebook–they’re so awesome they’re in fact called “Photography Awesomesauce” . Seriously I love the men and women of this group–they are the sweetest photographers from all over the world. Every single one of them is helpful and willing to help which is even more important. They offer insight and constructive critiscism and honesty in a loving way that doesn’t beat you down but encourages you to do better. I have learned so much from this group over the past year while I have been a part of it.

One of the things that the creator of the group, Carrie, does is creates this “photo challenge”. Each week she creates an assignment to help those who do participate grow as photographers. Each assignment focuses on a specific aspect of photography–different lighting situations, different shooting styles, etc. It’s something I know I would learn so much from but sadly I knew I just wouldn’t have the time to participate this year. I have however been following the posts for it and everyone is truly awesome! I wish I would have made the time for the challenge…which means I will next year!

There was this one week where after I saw the challenge, I just knew that I had to try it for myself! So I did. It’s called “free-lensing” or “lens whacking”. “Free-lensing/lens whacking” is a type of shooting where you remove your lens from the body of your camera and with the lens detached you take the picture. I know it sounds crazy but the photos created are awesome! Because the lens is removed it creates little pockets of light in the photo as well as giving you different points of focus while the rest of the photo has a blurred effect. It’s kind of the cheaper version to a tilt-shift lens or even a macro lens.

Well I searched the internet to find some tutorials on how to exactly go about doing this awesome looking style and found this really helpful youtube video. After watching it a few times…I brought out the camera and started shooting.

I love the shots! They’re so so cool looking!!! It’s for sure a technic that requires ALOT of practice, not something super duper easy. But totally worth it. I will be practicing this more often and trying to perfect it so that I can use it during shoots here and there. I really think shots like this would look beautiful with shooting some of those detail wedding shots. 🙂