Hey Everyone! Hope you've had a good week. This is a blog that closely follows a blog about shooting one focal length I did a couple of weeks ago. Here's the link.  One Focal Length Challenge. This blog is about lenses that can do almost anything that are primes. Not only are they practical and creative but can be used for Portraits, Landscapes and Street photography. Almost everything. Almost Goldilocks lenses. Just right! Here are a few things that I really like about primes. They are usually less expensive. Of course there are exceptions but overall they are much more friendly to your wallet than a Zoom lens is. You usually can get very wide apertures with these lenses like f/1.8 or f/1.4. These lenses
are smaller and more compact and lighter than Zoom lenses are. And these lenses are usually very sharp.  Prime lenses make you shoot with a purpose and intention. It makes you look at your scene with a more creative eye. Which is good! You're not just pointing zooming and shooting. You're thinking. Now when I say 35mm or 50mm I mean full frame sensor sized cameras. For crop sensor cameras it will be a 23mm or a 35mm respectively. So let's start with one of the most popular prime lenses the 35mm.

35mm- The 35mm almost has a Legendary status among street and travel photographers. It truly has that Goldilocks feel to it. Is not too tight when shooting and it's not too wide either . It's in a sweet spot. It is said that the 50mm is closest to the normal eye perspective. The 35mm is a normal eye's peripheral vision.  It's wide enough that you could use it for many Landscape shots. It is super for environmental portraits. It lets the background in your shot. So when you take a portrait of someone you also can get the environment that they are in. Instead of just getting a portrait of the butcher you also get him working in his butcher shop. With a 35mm you have to get a little closer to your subject when you shoot which takes some practice . The small size of this lens make it not so intimidating to your subject that makes it great for street photography. Many camera's that have fixed lenses that are on the market now like the Fuji X100 series come with a lens that mimics the 35mm. This lens is not great for tight headshot portraits but more environmental  shots. Great for like candid shots at a wedding where you get folks talking at a table or dancing. You can get them in the environment. This focal length is so popular it does tend to be a little bit more pricey than the next lens I'm going to talk about the 50mm.

50mm- This lens known as the "Nifty Fifty" Is one of the most affordable lenses you can purchase as a photographer. To me I can almost shoot everything with it. In the film days when you bought a camera it came with a 50mm lens. Usually a f/1.4 or a f/1.8. Most of us shot with this combo for a couple of years before we got another lens. So old-timers like myself really like the look of a 50mm. This lens like I mentioned before is the closest to your normal eye perspective. This makes it easy to frame and shoot because it's just as you saw it. This lens is a great portrait lens. You can get great headshots of folks and it gives a more natural look than say the 35. If you get too close with a 35 things tend to get a little distorted like Noses tend to get larger. But not the 50. It is great for street but you will have to step back a little if you want that environmental shot like the 35. Really the difference between the 35 and 50 is where you are to your subject. If you are in tight spots the 35 would be better but if you have some room I would say the 50 is better. You can use it for landscape and it's great for product photography as well. I love this focal length and could shoot it all day no problem. You can find these lenses new for less than 300 dollars and used even cheaper. I think every photographer should have a 50 in their kit.

You can get both of these lenses in your camera brand or 3rd party lenses. There are lots of them out there and a used one would be good also. I love going out and just taking one of these lenses with me. It cuts down the decision making process out of the picture and makes you think more about composing and being artsy. Well that's enough for me this week until next week "Get out and Shoot!" 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link