I love unexpected inspiration, you?  I had planned to write an Inspiration Rx post and I knew I wanted to do a giveaway of Victoria Smith’s new book See San Francisco, but today the posts collided to create this here post. I also have a secret source for you! I got Victoria’s book this morning, a travel guide cum visual love letter to my favorite American city–San Francisco. Flipping through page after page of eye candy and ruing that I had ‘nothing to shoot’, I decided to just get out and walk, no preconceived plan, just put E. on me and walk the neighborhood (my daughter is big on adventure). Before I left I changed my lens, something I rarely do, I just figured I would change it up and see what happened. The beautiful buttery bokeh image above was one of many images I found on my walk today, all within a one block radius of where we live. Victoria’s book made me take another look at my own environment and try to come at it with a new perspective. So back to the buttery bokeh…I got this beautiful impressionistic type background with the lens I chose which was a 28-70mm lens, it’s a lot heavier than my go to 50mm but gosh the results are so amazing! A tip today would be change it up, if you have more than one lens, try one you don’t normally use and shoot the same kind of things you usually gravitate toward, you might get some unexpected results. Same goes with other mediums, if you are lettering, break out a nib you wouldn’t normally use or an ink that you have been avoiding. There may be some surprise results that transpire out of this uncomfortable exercise. And for the secret source? I bought the 28-70mm lens at a garage sale for $1!  I didn’t know if it would work but it looked clean and it was only $1. I put it on my camera right away because it was in great shape but if it wasn’t I would have taken it in to get cleaned. I have since bought several lenses this way. The key? Scour Craigslist for garage/yard sales in more affluent areas, in the description of the ads if they have camera equipment they usually will list it, if not just ask when you get there if there’s any camera equipment, you can’t imagine some of the treasures you may find. I even found a few of my working film cameras this way!

For the giveaway of Victoria’s new book See San Francisco let’s see how you change it up this week with your medium or if you were able to see something in your environment in a new light like I did today! On Instagram or Pinterest tag your image with #inspRxSF (if you aren’t on any of those platforms leave a comment with a link to your image). We will choose a winner next Thursday, April 30, 2015, giveaway is open worldwide, good luck!

P.S. Why yes, I did use Foto Rx on this image! I used our Rosy glow action (because the image was super cool) and our 20/20 vision on the spot which brings out awesome detail in the petals.

P.P.S. Let us know if you have any luck treasure hunting!