I first learned about free-lensing from this post by the gals over at A Beautiful Mess. I tried it out but my Nikon kept saying “No lens attached” and wouldn’t let me shoot! I googled it and figured out I needed it set to something other than ‘auto’. Bam! I could start free-lensing. The post was right-it’s tricky. Especially since everything has to be manually focused as it’s not attached to the camera body. That was a little odd to get used to. And I know these pictures aren’t the greatest examples but I was so excited I got to try it I had to share it with you!

The post warns that if you’re shooting outdoors that dust can enter the camera body and to be aware of that. I shot the pictures of my cactus outdoors but didn’t have any trouble that I noticed. The post also says that after a lot of practice you can achieve a tilt-shift effect, kind of like the picture of the dinosaur above. I was really impressed with the swirl effect on the second picture of the cactus.

So, what do you think? Would you try free-lensing?