Among the latest offerings from Lensbaby is the new 'fisheye lens' (www.lensbaby.com).  Santa granted my request to have this new 'toy' and I've been playing with it along the way to make fun photos. 

The first thing to know is this is a totally manual lens - you set the aperture on the lens like we did back when I first started photography, and then I 'guess' on the shutter speed and adjust based on reviewing the image on the LCD and histogram.  Typically I use ISO 200, so my images are taken with this ISO setting.  Then to figure out focus, again, all manual but the scale on the lens helps along with viewing it through the camera.

The cool thing is this lens will focus as close you can get to the subject (well almost).  The other important factor is to remember 'everything in front of the camera will be in this photograph'.  I do mean 'everything' so keep everything behind the camera including your feet, or they will be in the photo!

One thing I am noticing is things with lines or circular patterns look pretty good with this type of lens.  I'm enjoying playing with this lens, but it is a 'fun lens' not to be used for serious photos of the same caliber of higher priced lenses - having said this, I love playing with this and would recommend this to anyone who just wants to take some fun photos using this type of lens without paying a fortune.

Here's a photo I took of a carriage wheel while we were at Heritage Village in Largo, Florida this past week.