I’ve really enjoyed my prime lens project…. until I decided to go telephoto!
All the lenses I’ve used so far are ones I was already fairly familiar with - they tend to be the ones I instinctively put in my bag when I’m heading out and about. For February I picked the Olympus 75mm f1.8 lens - an absolutely jewel but not the most natural focal length for me. For street photography I naturally gravitate to standard or wide angle lenses, while for wildlife I’ll often be found toting my 100-400mm lens (an effective focal length of 200-800!).
The 75mm (EFL 150mm) lives slap bang in the centre of this range. Were I a portrait photographer it would be invaluable for its flattering effect and ability to create soft, blurred backgrounds. The nearest I get to this is candid street photography and I quickly discovered it’s just too long for that purpose. It’s helpful to be able to see your moving subject in the viewfinder before you shoot, so you can plan where in the frame to capture them. At 75mm the field of view is narrow and I often found the person I was aiming for had left the frame again before I’d even pressed the shutter button!
So what about other genres of photography? A few times I used the 75mm when I was out and about in the countryside and in town. Here it came in handy for capturing distant details, and the way it apparently compresses the scene is undeniably lovely.
Don’t get me wrong, I love this lens and the look it gives me in the right situation. I’ll often use it when I’m doing event photography, usually capturing people at musical gatherings. Here it’s brilliant for pulling individual people out of a large crowd as you can reach into the scene and blur the surrounding individuals. Sadly I didn’t have any such opportunities during February!
By the end of February I’d developed something of a love/hate relationship with my 75mm lens. I knew this one would always be a challenge as it’s a more specialised optic than the others. I will continue to use it where there is a specific use case, but I don’t think it’s ever going to be a lens I naturally select as my soul focal length for a whole day.
So where next? We’re already well into March and I’ve gone to a different extreme for month five - a rather wide 12mm. You’ll have to wait until the beginning of April to hear more about that though!
Please click on any of the thumbnail images to see the pictures full size.
Images from Watchet harbour in Somerset, Thaxted, Saffron Walden, Hatfield Forest, Epping Forest and the City of London.
