Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a great week! You know sometimes you just have to challenge yourself. Here lately I've been in a rut photography wise and I'm trying to snap out of it. Getting new equipment sometimes will snap you into a good photography groove but I don't want to spend money. I asked my photo wingman what we were going to shoot this weekend and he came up with a challenge. So here goes the challenge. A one lens Macro shoot street walk through Wilmington NC. Now Wilmington is a beautiful sea side town in North Carolina full of Azalea's in the spring. They even have a festival which is the largest festival in North Carolina every year. I've been many times but not this year. They have lots of old historic homes with trees covered in Spanish moss. The plan is to get there in the early morning and walk the city and meet up for lunch to compare photo's and establish bragging rights. We must also walk at least 3 miles during this challenge. I kind of hesitated on the one lens thing but the more I thought about it I liked it so I agreed to it. 

My kit for the challenge. The body I will be using is a Sony full frame A7III at 24 mp and then I started thinking about what lens to use and I could use a variety of lenses to accomplish this task the only parameter its that it had to focus close up.  Maybe a 16-35mm or a Prime 35mm. But what I decided on was a 50mm macro with a maximum aperture of f2.8. Nothing too fancy. I grew up shooting a 50mm back in the film days so composition will be fun and I will have to work a little bit more than I would with a zoom. I'm sure there will be some shots that I will want to get that will be too wide for this lens so I will have to do a pantograph and stitch them together in photoshop. I will also bring a small flash and diffuser if I really want to go Macro to give me enough light. I am not going to tote a tripod with me to keep me quick and nimble.

The day of the challenge Me and Robert set out from my house and drove the hour and a 45 min to Wilmington. The weather forecast had changed from the last time I looked at it which said no rain until after lunch. And of course it was raining when we got there. We made our way downtown found parking .  We then donned our raincoats and headed out into the rain. The rain was a light rain . Heaver than a  sprinkle but lighter than a downpour. Manageable. We set the time to meet at 1100 at a bar and grill to have lunch. We had more than a hour and a half to shoot before lunch time .  And off we went into different directions. My plan was to stay outside and find things to shoot and Roberts was to go to some shops and shoot things until the rain died down. I came across a few things to shoot in the rain and I came upon a outdoor market but felt odd with my camera shooting items for sale so I kept on.  Shooting in the light rain was fun! I had a blast looking for objects to shoot much like a scavenger hunt. The lens I was using was very slow at focusing and it took me a while to get used to it. As I kept going it became easer to find things to shoot. I was getting in the groove!  Before I knew it the time had passed and I ended up at the lunch spot. I still had a few min. to spare so I circled the block and took a few more. We had a nice lunch and drove home talking about our small adventure and how we were going to post our photo's to our camera club's members page and let them figure out who was the winner. No mater who actually wins I feel like a winner because I really had a good time shooting with only 1 lens.  I have never traveled over an hour and a half to shoot with only one lens. But it was fun and freeing .  I didn't have to think about what lens would make the image look better. I only had one choice and I had to figure it out. That took all the gear out of the equation and put my skills at work trying to get the best image with just the 50 for everything. I loved it .  You should give it a try. Shoot with only one lens for a day and see what you get. I did pretty well and I have a number of images to choose from. 

Who won? Well the photo I submitted to the club was not the favorite. So in technical terms I lost. But I think I really won because I challenged myself got some good photo's , Shot in the rain which I hardly ever do and most important of all I had a great time with a photo buddy exploring a pretty city. So Win, Win, Win! I know Robert will say that's what losers say! LOL

So until next week challenge yourself with something new. A new technique or shoot something different than normal and you will have a great time. Get out and shoot!