June 12, 2020

I’m in my prime years…

Ok its nothing to do with dealing with a mid-life crisis, I haven’t gone out and bought a motorbike to try relive my youth…

I’m talking prime lenses. Yes my go to glass when I’m capturing the world around me.

I have to admit in a past life, I did start off with a couple of zooms and loved the flexibility of them but as my photography philosophy matured over the years I gradually migrated to using primes, pretty much from around 2009.

I travelled India in 2006-2007 and having a zoom lens was a perfect companion at that time - allowing me to reach subjects without jumping into the water… Over the past 10 years my street photography was born which is still evolving. I discovered having a fixed focal length worked better for me when composing and felt that a zoom lens for me was becoming a bit indecisive as potentially I would be moving the zoom from one distance to another not really knowing what the perfect capture would be and they were BIG! So I transitioned to prime lens which give me a new breath of life and I became more confident using fixed focal lengths. if I needed to get in closer I would use my feet to zoom…

On my recent travels (pre lockdown…) I used just ones lens for the duration. I believe it can make you a much more creative and confident photographer and push the boundaries of your vision.

Here are some early examples of when I first became acquainted with prime lenses.