One Body, One Lens
So, last February in an moment of inspiration/madness (take your pick), I traded in a D300 and 3 good lenses for a D700 body and a 24mm-85mm lens. Logic was to do a lot more landscape photography with a view to perhaps getting my AIPF at some point. I did not want to look back at my work and say, I wish I did that on an FX camera. The 24-85 was a bit of an afterthought, I had already decided a year of one lens would do me some good and I still had a 50mm 1.4 in my bag. So with a year nearly up I’ve looked back at my work and I have taken about 10,000 images, 80% with the 24-85 lens, 10% with the 50mm and some borrowed lenses.
The 24-85mm lens is not a high performer, significantly soft around the edges, and its 72mm needs a step up for my filters, which limits focal range. Having said that, it has not been the limiting factor on my photography in the past year. For landscapes it’s still about time and being in the right place at the right time. This morning I planned to get up 7:45 for the 8:40am sunrise on the beach near by; Looking out the window at 7:45am I saw an amazing sky and realised I was 30 minutes too late – and it was still more or less dark outside:-( I skipped breakfast and still caught the dawn, reminding my self I need to be at my planned spot an hour before dawn.
The 50mm produces great portraits and is invaluable for indoor ambient light work, I even used it for the odd landscape but my filters are setup for 77mm and holding glass in front of the lens is not ideal. But, now more and more I keep hearing a voice inside my head saying “wider lens”, “if only I had a 200mm”, “I wish I had more money!”…
So I did not quite survive on one lens for the year, but almost. It’s been a valuable lesson in re-enforcing the knowledge that photography is less about the tools and more about the thought, action and motivation. With little prospect of adding a host of top notch lenses to my bag in the near future, being back in college doing a masters (I was bored!), and no time to head west to work on a panel; I’m adding another limitation to this years landscape theme, One Body, One Lens, One Location! The location being the beach 2km from where I live. Given this last image was in the Celbridge club panel for the world cup for 2011 in which they came 10th gives me some hope that more good images await nearby… happy new year!
