Industrial

• 05 May, 2026
• • Art

Playing with a Nifty Fifty

I have been fixated on playing with my camera in the context of bird wildlife, but that's a bit restrictive unless I want to start making late evening trips. Instead, I took a short trip across from my local technical college and just played around with a lighter lens. I ended up having more fun doing this than I expected and even during my little 30-minute trip (and the file review that came after), I learned a few things to help me moving forward. Lesson 1: Don't just use F1.8 I have a habit of hearing "oh, X is the best" and just sticking to it. But while F1.8 is great for letting in light, I learned later that it limits what's in focus. Which is nice in some situations, but for wider subjects, I ended up with a photo where parts of the subject I wanted were not in focus. An example is the photo below, where I would have preferred most of the flowers in the foremost plane to be in focus. A similar issue can be seen with the fungus on the tree. Key takeaway: play with the aperture size.Lesson 2: Take More Time to Consider Composition It's too easy to just take a photo without considering why I'm taking it. What do I want to capture? Am I imagining this as an artistic piece? What's in the frame? How does that contribute to the piece? Now, in truth, I have not watched a single video on composition, so maybe I am missing something and am just completely off base. But I think I just need to slow down and consider the bigger picture. Lesson 3: Bring a Secondary Lens I only kept the 50mm with me on my walk, but I ended up in two scenarios where there were birds further away that I could not photograph well because they were too distant. So my gut says I should carry a second zoom lens with me. Although, there is something about the restriction of one lens that forces you to be more intentional. Kind of like Jack White and his "rule of 3s" and his restriction to write within some strict timeframe. So maybe I should consider this an opportunity to create more uniquely, rather than my usual birding intent. Lesson 4: Don't Underestimate Canon's Color Science I found myself looking at a Canon R7 today thinking "maybe I bought the wrong camera. I should have bought something newer, with better autofocus." But the more shots I took, the more apparent the camera's capabilities became. The colors are excellent, regardless of the camera's age. The menus are intuitive, and it turns out that if you use the AI servo mode, the autofocus can track moving subjects better! Knowledge of the camera and how to photograph is much more important than the camera body itself. My walk today helped me reaffirm that belief.