My new 105mm macro lens just arrived.
I wasn't going to take any more photographs until the weekend (I've already taken three rolls of film this week), but now I'm not sure I'll be able to control myself. This lens is awesome.
Please allow an amateur photogeek to gush for a moment.
The "normal" lens for a 35mm camera has a focal length of 50mm. When photographs are taken with a 50mm lens, the final image closely resembles that which we perceive with our eyes. My 50mm f/1.4 lens (which cost less than I thought it did) provides a 46-degree angle of view. This is a great lens to use for general photography, and I'm glad that I've been learning to use mine over the past couple of weeks. (All of the photos that I posted last week were taken with my 50mm lens.)
As the focal length of a lens decreases, a wider view of the world can be photographed. Lenses with focal lengths shorter than 35mm are considered wide-angle lenses. Many zoom lenses have minimum focal lengths of 28mm, which allows for a slight wide-angle view. My new wide-angle lens is a 20mm f/1.8 which has a 95-degree angle of view. Wide-angle lenses are useful for photographing scenic views, for taking shots in close quarters, and for taking in a large view. I love wide-angle photographs, and am anxious to put this lens to good use.
While a shorter focal length allows a lens to provide a larger picture of the world, a longer photograph allows a lens to focus on details. Telephoto lenses provide magnification, tending to flatten the features of the subject being photographed, and blurring the background at small f-stops (large aperatures). A photograph of a cityscape taken with a long lens will cause buildings that are blocks apart to appear as if they were next to each other.
A 105mm lens, like the one that FedEx just brought me, is often used for portraiture. The focal length provides a moderate level of magnification while flattening the subject's features slightly, producing a more flattering image. This is reason enough for even an amateur photographer such as myself to want such a lens. This 105mm f/2.8 lens, which is limited to a 23.3 angle of view, has the added ability to perform macro photography, and that's what has me so excited. I love the possibilities of macro photography.
What is macro photography? Macro photography is taking "close-up picutres of small things". Most lenses are unable to focus on objects closer than about a foot distant. If a person wants to focus on an object closer than a foot, they have to resort to tricks or longer lenses or teleconverters. Even then, the results aren't always acceptable. A macro lens is specifically designed for close focusing. With a macro lens, one can photograph insects and flowers and coins and other small objects.
For example, yesterday I photographed some crayons with my 50mm lens. (This was for the current photography class assignment: photograph patterns.) The best I could do was photograph an area containing several crayons (a dozen?). Just goofing around with this new macro lens, I've been able to focus on an area that contains just parts of two crayons. Wow.
For my own edification -- and because I'm caught up on all my custom box paperwork -- here's a breakdown of how well my three lenses are able to focus.
- The 20mm lens can focus on an area roughly 11 x 14
- The 50mm can focus on an area roughly 5-3/4 x 8-1/2 inches
- The 105mm macro lens can focus on an area roughly 1 x 1-1/4 inches
These are three lenses make a fine library from which to choose. I can choose the best lens for the photograph I'm composing. They're all good quality amateur lenses, and I look forward to putting them through their paces as I learn more about photography.
(Note: Most people prefer to use a single zoom lens instead of carting around three fixed-length lenses (and I admit that my camera bag isn't able to cope with all my gear now). I do have a 28-80mm zoom lens that came with my camera, but I try not to use it; it's a lesser quality lens, and I feel that the best way for me to learn photography is to use fixed-length lenses. Zoom lenses make me lazy. Fixed-length lenses force me to think about my composition, to work at creating a photograph. I'm hoping this method will, in time, allow me to produce reasonable quality work.)
Now it's time for me to go photograph crayons. And bugs. And the flutes in a sheet of corrugated. And business cards. And, and, and...
If you'd like to learn more about photoraphy, check out photo.net, a great resource for photographers of all levels. The photo.net equipment section has been a valuable resource for me over the past year, especially the article describing how to build a 35mm SLR system.
Update: This too good to pass up, and I'm going to forget about it if I wait until tomorrow: Mormon action figures (more here). Actually, these action figures are quite nice; someone's paid attention to detail. Reading the descriptions of each character makes me a little nostalgic for the stories I heard as a child. I hadn't thought about Zarahemla in nearly twenty years.
On this day at foldedspace.org
2005 — Everyone Has Something to Say I believe that everybody is talented, original, and has something to say.
2004 — Top Films of 2002 & 2003 Rating the top films of 2002 & 2003. Learning to use iChat. Resisting the urge to eat Girl Scout cookies.
2002 — Kris' Grandmother On Thursday, Kris' Grandmother called. She calls infrequently, and at odd hours. She's called at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. She's called at 10:00 p.m. on Friday. She calls when she's thought of something to say and she believes there is a possibility that somebody will be awake on the receiving end.