Holiday Spark (Ended)

Hello again, I have something fun for everyone today, like last year, I am having a little christmas giveaway! This time around it is a little simpler but still photography themed. I got up with the fine folks at Lensbaby and bought two of their Spark lenses from them to give away for the holiday. A little something to say thank you for your support as readers this year. I know there have been some slow months here and there but everyone has stuck with me through and through and I am, as always, incredibly grateful for everyone’s kind words and support this year.

This year actually marks the 5th anniversary of fiftyfootshadows! It launched in January 5 years ago after an equally long run with my previous site. It has come a long way since then and the future is still looking bright. I will have something fun in January to commemorate 5 years that has been a long time coming, just a bit more work to do before I announce it, same as usual.

So, back to the Spark, I think that in the past Lensbaby lenses may have had more of a reputation as toys, or gimmicks but over the last few years they have really stepped up their game offering a brilliantly simple system giving the ability to change out the lens optics for different uses. YoungDoo owns a Composer body with their ‘Sweet 35’ optic and I have really enjoyed messing around with it recently and would love to get my hands on the pro version of the composer with the 80mm optic they have available to see what I could pull off with their simplified approach to tilt and shift. One of these days. I had the idea to get a couple of Sparks for this years Christmas giveaway gift but had never previously used one before now.

I must admit to taking the liberty to opening up the Canon mount lens I am giving away to run through some testing the last few days while I was traveling. I didn’t want to give away anything I wouldn’t personally recommend and stand behind. You can see a couple of the shots below. So whomever wins one can say that I shot with it the lens you now own heh, you will surely be famous one day.

I quickly fell in love with the simplicity of it, it was a lot of fun to shoot with! You simply grip the front of the lens as you line up your shot and pull it forward or sideways to focus. The double glass optic that comes with it can get surprisingly sharp but the one, single aperture will leave you either shooting at higher ISO’s or using it primarily in daylight. I of course wouldn’t shoot with one of these all the time but it sure is tempting sometimes just because it’s so fun to play with. At any rate, it’s a wonderfully fun lens to shoot with and I am excited to be giving a couple of them away.

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So, here is the deal, these are being given away free of charge, no strings attached, just a simple gift to whomever wins one. There is one Nikon mount version and one Canon mount version here in front of me to give away. To enter the giveaway simply leave a comment with either the word “Nikon” or the word “Canon” to let me know which camera mount you use. Sorry to the Micro Four Thirds shooters out there! I will randomly pick from those who enter in each category and notify you via email to get your shipping info. PLEASE be honest, only put in your entry if you have a camera that can support the lens and only submit your name once. I trust you guys and I would love to keep a hold of that trust.

ALSO, I really hate to do this, really really, but I can’t afford to pay international shipping for this giveaway. Shipping from the U.S. has gotten rather crazy and it will apparently cost over $40USD. I have not yet been able to find a cheaper shipping method so before you jump down there and claim your place, if you are outside of the U.S. I will have to ask that you pay for the shipping via a simple paypal payment. Sorry for the inconvenience but it’s something I need to do.

I have another option that anyone can join in on. Anyone without an SLR to fit the lenses, or not within the US or doesn’t want a lens can enter the word “Print” in a comment below and I will choose one person from this group and let them pick any desktop image on the site and make a nice archival quality signed 8×10(12) print and mail it to you. Sound good? It’s something I will be offering for sale in the new year in limited editions but this will be a nice place to start.

Your real name is not needed until I ship if you win but I do for sure need a working email address which is only visible by me and emails are never saved or used for any other reason. I have no mailing list as of now. Let me know if you have any other questions of this nature and I will be happy to answer them. I will announce the winner on Christmas day, just head down or over or into the comment section to enter and good luck!

BONUS! The candy cane image above which I have lovingly titled “Sandy Cane” is also a desktop downloadable below. It was conceived as a backup plan if the tree image fell through but taking the opportunity to share it here anyway.

UPDATE: Thanks so much to everyone for their participation, I have randomly chosen 3 winners, Jason Jiang won the Canon, Ville won the Print, and Stephen won the Nikon. I will mail you guys soon with details.