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Photo of the Day February 2020
- Thread starter Hughmac
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Mais oui, monsieur! When and if i do get around to finding and snapping a picture or two of those delightful flowers will be sure to label them correctly... C'est bon!
This use of mainly primes has been a new experience for me, as in the past most of my lenses were zooms and although I had a few primes I rarely used them, and usually only for specific situations (such as a macro prime, for instance). Now with my new group of lenses, so far there is only one which is a zoom and all the rest are primes. It is interesting because it does make me stop and think more carefully about whatever it is I want and am planning to shoot and what I want to accomplish with the end result and therefore what lens focal length will be best. At times I also need to think about if I need the lens to also be pretty fast (f/1.8 as opposed to f/2.8, for instance) and will want to open it all the way up, or if that is not going to be a concern in a particular shooting session.
Today, for instance, when I wanted to shoot something specific for a topic suggested on another forum (Happy Leap Day, February 29th, everybody!), as I was opening the cabinet door to retrieve the camera body and a lens, I paused and thought for a moment about what the subject I had chosen was and what the best approach might be to it (in this instance, the widest-open, fastest aperture didn't really matter). Even though this was going to be another tabletop kind of shot, the 90mm macro and the 50mm macro both stayed in the armoire this time as I reached for the 35mm f/1.8 instead, realizing that I wanted and needed that slightly wider perspective, since this would not be a macro shot and it wouldn't matter that I was not going to shoot the lens wide-open. No using a zoom to readily adjust back-and-forth to come to decisions about the right framing and composition: it had to be the right choice of the right lens right from the get-go and some "foot zooming" (or more accurately, "sitting/wheel zooming" since I was going to be seated in a chair on castors) if I wanted to achieve what I had in mind.
I notice, too, that when I am setting out for a stroll around the neighborhood, something which hasn't happened a whole lot yet this winter but which will be occurring more as the weather moves from winter into spring, that again I need to think about what I might encounter, and also if I want to limit myself to focusing on the kinds of subjects and views that I might get when using a prime lens and one focal length. It's been a rather useful and valuable reminder to me to slow down, take the time to be more focused when out-and-about rather than just having a do-it-all-zoom lens with which I can shoot any number of different subjects as I see them..... That said, yes, I've still got that all-purpose 24-105mm zoom lens on my personal lens "roadmap," along with possibly another zoom and at least one other prime..... There are times when one sees something and wants to shoot it and if the right lens isn't at hand, that's an exercise in frustration. That's the value of zooms, as they can offer so much flexibility. That said, right now for me it is probably just as well that the one zoom lens I do have, the 200-600mm, much as I love it, really is a bit heavy for me to go walking around with in the neighborhood and so far I have not even attempted to do so. LOL!
I'm really appreciating each of my prime lenses for what perspective on the world they can give me and what photographic opportunities they provide.....
Choosing which lenses to take out is always a challenge for me. Spoilt for chose is half of my problem!
I just bought a Manfrotto backpack that holds all my m43 gear for moments like these! It’s not a very large or bulky pack, but it can still accommodate a tripod and a small lunch.
We already carried large backpacks with camping gear, so I deliberately left the tele at home. Too heavy. I did bring small binoculars though. So I have the images in my mind....
oh no. The images of the musk ox are nice, but I'm afraid what other images might escape my mind.