1/180s @ f/4.0, ISO 160, 90mm

Exp: 1/50s @ f/5.6, ISO250
Gear: Olympus E-P1, Leica 50mm f/2.0

A lot of people write about “zooming with your feet” and tell you to go out an buy prime lenses.  Instead of doing this I thought I’d explain my experience using prime lenses.  The major advantage I get with using prime lenses is visualization.  I know that at a certain distance from a subject it is a certain size.  From experience I know how the frame will drop around that subject when I bring the viewfinder up to my eye.  This makes for a much more fluid process of making images.  There isn’t any fiddling around with the zoom ring to try to include or exclude portions of the image to frame it like you saw it.  So when I see the image its very easy to adjust the exposure and capture the frame.  I didn’t have to look around the viewfinder to look for things sneaking in on an edge or for some funny merger ruining the image.  I’ve captured what I saw and can bring that back the viewer.

My other thought is that it feels much more natural to shoot with a prime lens.  Which makes sense because our eyes are fixed focal length.  As we move around the world we change our perspective on an object.  Shouldn’t we do the same when we are photographing?

Here’s a little activity just to see how you’re really using your zoom lenses.  Go through your images and see what focal lengths you are actually using.  This may surpise you, it was a surpise to me.  Even though I have an infinite number of choices along the zoom range of a lens most of my shots were taken at either the widest setting or the most telephoto setting.  How is this for you?

Exp: 1/80s @ f/2.0, ISO 100
Gear: Olympus E-P1, Leica 50mm f2

We’ve had some relief from the rain here in Cleveland for a few days so I’ve been able to get out and enjoy the nice fall color we’ve had this year.  As it happens many times this shot was taken after my primary subject, tinkers creek gorge, wasn’t all that spectacular.  So I turned around and started walking down along the road.  It wasn’t long until a came across this bundle of leaves sticking out away from everything else.  I knew this would make a great subject for the short depth of field of this lens.  I’m quite happy with how this lens renders the transition and bokeh.  Because this lens is mounted to the E-P1 using a mechanical adapter it operates completely manual.  You might think this is a downside I find having manual control over the aperture and the focus makes using the E-P1 a very different but rewarding experience.   Since I have independent dials for focus, aperture, and shutter (wheel on back of camera) I can make changes by touch.   This kind of control allows the camera to melt away and I can concentrate on making images.