Interview with ‘Reverse freelenser’ - Regina Boston
When Regina Boston (RMB Photography on Instagram) shared one of her images with the Gather team by way of the #gatheracademy hashtag, it literally stopped us in our tracks.
The beauty she captures with her camera using a number of different techniques, but particularly, reverse freelensing with her Lensbaby lenses was something out of this world. When we delved into more of her work, we just knew we had to share her with our community. Read on as Helen interviews Regina, and take in a feast for the ‘creative-nature-photographer-lovers’ eyes!!!
So for those who don’t know you, can you please tell us who are you and where you come from?
I am Regina Boston of RMB Photography who is a family, nature, and macro photographer from Maryland. I’m a wife, mother of 7 children, 1 grandson, and 2 dogs. I truly enjoy capturing subjects as they are, helping people notice small beautiful details in the world around us.
When did your love for photography start?
My love for photography started when I was a teenager, though I didn’t zone into photography until my early 20’s when I took a Photography 100 class at a local community college, using film and a dark room. That class re-sparked the joy of photography for me and I have been photographing consistently since then.
What’s your favourite thing to photograph?
Goodness this is a hard question to answer. I’d have to say my favorite subject is nature, mainly flowers.
You’re a lensbaby ambassador, how exciting! What’s your favourite lensbaby lens and why?
Thanks!! I’m absolutely honored to be a Lensbaby Ambassador and love chatting with other photographers about these fun creative lenses. Oh my, this is an even harder question! I love my Lensbaby lenses for different reasons, though if I had to pick only one it would be the Velvet85. This lens is a BEAST and is phenomenal for macro and portrait images. The bokeh and lens flare created by this lens is absolutely dreamy! My favorite runner up would be the Edge35. I love using the Edge35 for all my portrait images and ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) images, and when I’m out and about with this lens I can reverse freelens to capture macro image. If anyone has any questions about Lensbaby items, please message me! I can offer a discount code and help photographers select which Lensbaby lens would fit their creative desires.
Thank you for using the hashtag #gatheracademy on Instagram. We have been looking at your recent images and noticed that you love to “reverse freelense”! Could you tell us a little bit about this technique and how you came to learn about it?
Yes!! I am addicted to this fun and creative technique! I had always been interested in learning how to freelense to obtain creative blurred images. Earlier this year I took an online photography class that taught many different photography techniques that I’ve wanted to learn, one being freelensing. Once I learned this technique, I played around with reverse freelensing with a Helios 44-2 vintage lens and became addicted! Freelensing is a technique where you detach the lens from the camera body and hold the lens in front of the body by hand. As photographers, we can create painterly imagery by using many different techniques. My personal favorite to achieve this style is reverse freelensing. Reverse Freelensing is when you flip the lens around and hold it up to the camera body. With this technique, reverse freelensing, one can use a non-macro lens to create macro images. Reverse Freelensing has given me the artistic freedom to create painterly images in camera without post manipulation. If you’d like to learn more about this technique, please visit my Instagram IGTV and Reels where I’ve demonstrated how to achieve this technique.
What’s your greatest achievement in photography?
I set a personal goal in January 2020 to have an image published and accomplished that goal by having 2 images published last year (one in a magazine and one in a book), with another that will be published later this year in a magazine. To me, that is a huge achievement to have my work showcased in print for others to enjoy.
Do you have any tips you’d like to give to photographers who are just starting out on their journeys??
My biggest tip is to shoot everyday and learn, learn, learn! Invest in yourself by taking classes and joining photography groups. This will help push you to try new techniques and awaken your creative voice! In early 2020 I had joined a “30 days with Lensbaby” group on IG and learned so much about my lens, my creative style, and made wonderful friendships. After joining that group, I asked to join in different IG loops that have pushed my creative boundary.
WANT TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT REVERSE FREELENSING AND SOAK UP EVEN MORE OF REGINA’S BEAUTIFUL WORK?!
Make sure you head on over to her Instagram feed and check out her IGTV, where she has a great little tutorial on how she creates these sublime images.
FALLEN IN LOVE WITH ONE OF REGINA’S IMAGES?
Regina sells prints of her fine-art images, check out her online store here.
WANT MORE?
Keen to understand even more unique camera techniques? Read on as Lensbaby and OMNI Filters instructor, Ute Reckhorn delves into the old techniques of Camera Obscura and takes the new Lensbaby Obscura lens for a test drive.
