Down the Rabbit Hole: October 2011

Leaves just starting to change, late October

So my roommate is in art school and can rent lenses from her university over the weekend. So for the past few weeks she's been taking out lenses for both of us to try out, and then we run around the city taking pictures. It's really exciting to be able to test out a whole list of lenses and learn the differences between them, the subtle things you can only understand by actually shooting with one. You start to learn that each lens has some feature that outperforms others, and that certain lenses are preferred based on the subject, lighting, and distance of the image you are trying to capture.

The first week we tried out a Canon EF 85mm lens, which took great pictures. The F-stop on this lens made it hard to shoot at night, but took amazing scenic and detailed photos during the day. This weekend my roommate took out a 100mm f/2.8 Canon macro lens, which was great for capturing fine detail while softening anything in the peripheral or background. All my pictures this week were shot with a macro lens (with a few iPhone exceptions here and there). Each lens captures the world a little differently, allowing you to change perspective while peering through the same viewfinder.