We are three months into March, and as I reported in a previous post, it has been a different year so far. I am not talking about the fact I have taken less photographs, it is not even that I have used three lenses, not just one lens. I have used three lenses more in the last three months than I have ever used them!
Let us take a look at the three lenses I have used this year so far.
- Nikkor Z24-70mm
- Tamron Z16-30mm
- Tamron Z150-500mm
Do you notice something? As alluded to, and linked to in the first paragraph, I have not used a prime lens this year! This may not sound unusual, but if you know me and my work, I usually live with a prime lens attached to my cameras, be it the Nikkor Z40mm F/2, the Nikkor Z35mm F/1.4 or the Z50mm F/1.4.
Although it is easy to say that I use prime lenses primarily for the image quality, and modern zoom lenses have closed that gap, although this can be true, it is never the reason I use a prime lens. I have always loved prime lenses, I know exactly the composition I will get when I life that camera to my eye, and that is the main reason. I my minds-eye, I can envisage a shot, move into place and press the shutter button.
“So what has changed?” I hear you ask…
I asked myself this question too. I did not set out this year to basically ignore prime lenses, but when I changed my workflow at the end of last year, and decided to create beautiful, well crafted images, with a change in direction on how I shoot, why I shoot and how I edit, prime lenses just got left in my photography cupboard, and the zoom lenses replaced them
Putting things into context about the change, this year I have also used a tripod on almost every shoot also. I has been a complete rethinking of how I do photography.
“Why choose the zoom lenses then?”
You know that I have always said that having constraints creates creativity (among many other things)? Well, my only constraint now is my imagination.
Armed with a focal range between 16mm and 500mm (16-30 F/2.8, 24-70 F/4, 150-500 F/5), armed with a tripod and a ten-stop ND filter, and knowing that on a full frame low light does not matter, and bokeh at F/2.8 and F/4 is still mind-blowing, my imagination can run wild and create images without compromise.
While prime lenses (especially my Nikkor Z40mm) are indeed smaller, Nikon Z lenses are not big compared to their old DSLR counterparts, and the Z16-30 and Z24-70, even with their constant apertures are tiny lenses. Size is irrelevant these days too.
“A new found freedom“
While I am far from stopping using prime lenses (I still use them for work, with weddings, events, portraits and other paid work), I am loving my new found freedom. I never thought that I would be not just using zoom lenses and taking a tripod with me!
Some people say a tripod slows you down, and while that may be true for some, I use it for more artistic uses, such as long exposures, focus stacking and creating 96mp images with my super-resolution mode of my Nikon ZF.
It has been a great start to the new year, and I have only shared a little bit of my work on the website, you may want to follow me on social media for much more (and usually the final edits of photographs).
“And onward we go“
So far I have been happy this year with the way things have been going. Of course, wedding season is almost upon us, so I will be picking up the prime lenses on weekends, but at the moment I am enjoying one camera, one lens, multiple possible focal lengths!
I do have a pining to get out there with the ZF and the Z35mm F/1.4 though…
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Nikon Recipes for the Z system can be found here.
You can find a complete list of my gear here.
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