Lenses

Prime Lens
A prime lens is one with a fixed focal length (thus doesn't zoom), I've written about this before and will again. Zoom lenses come standard with most cameras these days and while they are nice they make for cement shoe photographers. Zooming is not the same as getting closer and a lens that forces the photographer to move around can really change their perspective.

These can also be cheap for the quality. Canon produces a lens nicknamed "the nifty 50", a 50mm F1.8 prime with excellent quality for under $100. I also love my 35mm F2 lens, especially for my cropped sensor. These produce excellent quality while still being nice on the pocketbook.

At least one of the beginning photography classes at any school should require the students to shoot with only the nifty 50 or equivalent. The first time I shot with my 35mm prime it changed my view of photography.


Lensbaby
The controversial equipment of the day. People seem to either love it or hate it. There are thousands of photos on flickr taken using this lens, and just mention it to any "serious" photographer and good chances you will hear moans, ironically from both the analogy and digital camps. Most of it stems from a view that the lens does all the work, just throw it on and make a "better image." But really that's never the truth. A lensbaby look can enhance an image if that's what it needs, but there needs to be a point. Bad photos of your dog will not get any better just because they are shot with a lensbaby. As with all photography the end result is a combination of choices and when they all work together you get a better image.

I've had this experience as people who have loved a piece changed their mind as soon as I mentioned I used a lensbaby. I was rather tempted to give them the location of the photo and suggest they make a duplicate of it if they thought it was "so easy."

There is often a lot of negativity in the online world of photography, which might be why I don't often participate in online photography forums. Go ahead and take that bad photo of your dog with a lensbaby, maybe don't show it as your best work but don't let people scare you into not taking it. The single most important thing to being a photographer is to not be afraid of failure, or creating a "bad image."

I own the Composer, it acts similar to a standard lens and can be used for long exposures. It makes for a good mount for experimentation as well. The apertures is set by inserting magnetic discs which means you can create your own apertures that distort light in different ways as well as control the 'lensbaby effect'. Material can easily be put in front of this to provide plastic lens looks. The glass is easily removable and can be replaced with home made pin hole elements. It really provides a lot of diversity while still allowing the use of a digital camera.


Cellphone camera
The best camera is the one you have on you.

They are often a pain in the ass to use, they rarely have reasonable exposure, focus or zoom control, they compress the image and are noisy and yet all of this can be freeing. Just push a button, take a photo, nothing more nothing less.

Chase Jarvis, an avid iPhone camera shooter (he also shoots with the latest medium format digital back) not only posts the best of his iPhone photos but has had a gallery exhibit based on them.


Everything
As you may have noticed all of these things work slightly different than a standard SLR setup. In the end a camera is just a box that collects and saves light. While many might worry about not having the proper L lens or the right kind of camera, the photographer works with what they have to create something unique. In the world of photography a stagnant photographer is a dead photographer, anything that changes ones perspective or habits should be tinkered with.

I see this all the time in large event photography. Hundreds of photographers wandering around with telephoto L lenses and large high megapixel DSLRs. They take nice photos of smiling and posed people, I'm sure these people will be quite pleased with their images on the photographers website, but it all looks the same. I can't tell one photographer apart from the other. The real challenge is to either shoot with subpar equipment and get good results or to separate yourself from the crowd.