ShelbyFoister.com – Est. 1981
13Feb/110

Out with the old, In with the new.

Over the past few months I have fallen into a creative rut with my photography.  I decided that the lenses I have been using were a huge barrier. The lenses I have been using since taking up the photography hobby are the 18-55 IS f/3.5-5.6 kit lens and a 75-300 f/3.5-5.6  telephoto. With these two lenses I have an enourmous amount of reach. Between the ranges of 18-300 I can capture just about anything I need to. However, both are very mediocre in quality and at 300mm the telephoto is a bitch to get a photo that isn't blurred or intensely distorted. So, that being said I made a leap of faith. I sold them both and bought a single 50mm prime f/1.4.

First reactions from friends and family include "Soo, you can't zoom?" and "That wasn't really a good idea." No, I can't zoom in or out now because I only have the single lens, but was it a good idea? Yes... I am officially in love with primes. It is obvious to me now that it is more important to capture a GREAT photo instead of TONS of mediocre ones. Not to say that I didn't grab some great shots with my other lenses, but none of the clarity that I am getting now.

Yesterday, my fiance and I went to a classic car show at the Wiregrass mall in Wesley Chapel, FL. There were hundreds of people walking around all of the cars so it was difficult to get any shots, especially at the 50mm range, but I did manage a couple without people walking in front of me.

Enjoy!

50mm @ f/2.8 ISO 100 1/800

50mm @ f/2.8 ISO 100 1/8000

The photo of the Porsche shows that I am still learning which aperture is best for certain situations. Before, when my only options were 3.5+ it wasn't as big of a deal to choose the correct aperture, but you can plainly see in this photo that 2.8 was too wide. The right side of the car is sharp and in focus, while the left side is slightly out of focus. Had I used f/3.5 or f/4 I would have achieved sharp focus on the entire front end while still throwing the background out of focus. However, the photo of the old (Ford?) above is sharply in focus using f/2.8, and that is because the car is sitting square in the frame.

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