When Old Is New Again

I am someone who gets caught up in all the latest gadgets, bells and whistle...I'm a gatherer by nature I think? If I read a review about a great book, I have to have it now.  When in France I loved the shoes there..oh I could have gotten the same brand when I got home, probably for less money, but no, I had to have them right then and there and I wanted them to be from France..the same thing happens when I listen to Kim Klassen tells us about all the great books she loves, or the props she uses and then she gives us the list in our on-line class, I go like crazy to research it and find it.  My photography community is wonderful..the people are great at sharing and answering questions..and if you admire someone works, they more than likely will tell you how they have accomplished their style...and then I sit and ponder and plot.. 

I love to take photo's of the boys..and I've used all kinds of lenses...as a matter of fact, recently I just bought the 24-70L 2.8 because it would be good for both still life and the boys...indoors..still not what I was looking for for outside shooting...it is however great for still life..along with my 35mm.  For awhile now I've been following two very creative and unique photographers of young children and the out of doors...their photo's were sharp as a tack...they had a great bokeh background and the photo's just popped.  I have faved many of their shots on Flickr and just love what they do...and always..I'm thinking tri-pod.  Well that is great if your kids stand still but I wanted to shoot them in all their daily activities...sooo, finally, I got up my courage (because I didn't know either one of them) and I wrote to them...and guess what...one of them wrote back.  We had a dialogue..it was informative and lovely...She told me that she used a prime 85mm...and that was how she got those shots..of course her subjects were cute and somehow she did get them to pose and her creativeness in composition was outstanding...I'll have to work on that. 

In the end we had a lovely conversation and I was really impressed with her sharing...and since I had recently bought the 24-70 I didn't think I could press for another lens so soon...but I stored the information. The problem with me is once I have the information...it never leaves my head until I make a definite decision.  Oh I let it sit there for about two weeks and bam...I was off to Hunt's and B&H doing my research...shocker...the prime 85L series 1.8 is around 2,000.00.  Well that wasn't going to work right yet...so I set in on that shelf in my brain...marked "ideas".   It has been there for awhile now but for some reason this week I started thinking about it again..so I went to my "lens shelf" and found my 35mm and took that outside..and shot the boys with it all day...really nice photo's, really nice, but not the look I was trying to capture...and then, when returning that to the closet I saw my prime 100mm macro...BINGO.

I took that lovely out and thought, well if an 85 is good, why can't I give my 100 a try...and I was off and running..I have used this lens many times for my macro work and I love it for that.  It's a prime lens, 2.8.  I have also used it for portrait photography...up close and tight shots...but on Tuesday I used it for every kind of shot and I was amazed at the sharpness, clarity and the bokeh that I love.  I went shopping in my own closet and found a treasure.  I have since culled those photo's and I'm sharing some of my favorites here today for Friday's Finds..and what I found this week is that perhaps we should take more time to check our own supplies before rushing off on a treasure hunt..I am so happy right now with my closet find..and I can't even begin to tell you how exciting it was to upload and view the boys through this new/old lens...the only thing that I'll have to work harder on is focus because the focusing field is pretty precise but when I got it...it was magical...all the photo's here today are mostly SOOC except for a bit of desaturation.  I wanted to share with you what the lens is capable of doing..not what I'm capable of doing in lightroom or Photoshop...that will come another time...so what about that 85mm lens...I can't say I'm done with the wanting of it or the researching of it, because my understanding is that it's a pretty fast lens, but I have put in on the back burner for awhile and I'm going to keep working with my 100mm...see how it goes, you know.  Maybe next week I'll start looking around here for photo props.  Who knows what I'll find when I start opening up draws and closets...and for sure there must be some boards I can steal out of Jim's workshop...

 

 

"You don't get the same moment twice."