Traveling Light

I had a short business trip this week to Arizona, so I decided to take my Canon 6D and one lens - my new Lensbaby Burnside 35. I was a bit concerned about taking only a fixed lens, because I often want to zoom in on subjects, but I wanted to travel light. If you aren't familiar with the Burnside 35, take a few minutes and watch this video to get a sense of its features.

As with all Lensbabies, it is a manual lens, but this one has a second aperture dial that allows you to create images surrounded by subtle, swirling bokeh and vignette right in camera. I was really eager to experiment with it while in Phoenix.

Although I didn't have much free time, I was able to find a window between meetings to go to the Desert Botanical Garden. It was a treat on many levels, and my Burnside 35 was a great lens to use.

In addition to viewing beautiful nature, the Botanical Garden has many ceramic sculptures on display by artist Jun Kaneko. According to their website, Jun "is an internationally renowned artist who specializes in large-scale, hand-built, ceramic sculptures."

Walking around the Garden we came across his sculptures in unexpected places.

All of his sculptures are very colorful and playful. The Garden actually encourages hugging them if we were so inclined. This one looked like he needed one.

The landscape was quite beautiful with many different species of cactus on display.

I found the lens very versatile. You can get up to 6" from a subject, as well as capturing images from a distance. I must say that I would have liked to have a telephoto lens to get a closer view of the birds, but overall I was happy with my choice of the Burnside 35mm.

The Garden is quite large with a number of trails to explore, but I was able to see most in our brief time there.

I would encourage visiting it if you are in the area. We went early so we escaped both the crowds and the heat, which I would recommend. I also think that traveling with one lens was a smart thing to do, despite my momentary desire for a telephoto lens.