Working With 50

It used to be my favourite lens.

Back in the days before I owned my own SLR camera, I would borrow my father's Minolta SR-T 101. The only lens that he had for this great manual camera was a 58mm f/1.2 lens: no wide-angle lens, no telephoto. In fact, for quite a while after I first learned how to use the camera and take my first photos, I didn't even know that the lens came off.

In the last two years of high school, when I was a photographer for our yearbook, I would compose shots with only this lens. It was the lens that taught me how to compose a photograph for maximum impact.

When I took Journalism at Algonquin College, I decided that I needed my own camera. Because I had worked at a paint and wallpaper store in our local shopping mall since before the end of high school, I had saved enough money to buy a Minolta X-700 with a 28–75mm zoom lens. For my Photojournalism class, this is the camera that I used but I also borrowed that 58mm lens from my father's camera.

Can you blame me? It had an f-stop of 1.2!

The prime lens still held my interest. Because I couldn't zoom in or zoom out on my subject, I had to put more thought into the composition of the shot. Some of the best photos that I captured for my photojournalism projects were with that 58mm lens.

The next lens that I bought for my X-700 was a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I loved how it made my camera seem so compact—it was much smaller than the bulky 58mm lens, though not as fast. It became the most-used lens on that camera for years. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if I dug out that old camera from my storage closet, I'd find it with that 50mm lens on it.

When I first moved over to digital photography, with my Nikon D80, I bought it with an 18–55mm kit lens—it was on sale. But as soon as I could afford a second lens, I chose a 50mm lens.

For Christmas of 2019, I bought myself a Nikon D750, deciding to finally go full-frame with my digital photography. I had meant to wait until my birthday, the following March, but the camera store was offering to throw in a free lens with their holiday promotion, and I jumped at the offer.

The lens that they threw in was a 50mm f/1.8 lens that was compatible for full-frame photography—something that my existing 50mm lens wasn't.

I have to admit that I used it for the first time that I went shooting with the D750 but because I had already bought a 24–70mm 2.8 lens when I bought my D7200, in 2015, I had made this zoom lens the standard lens for my D750. They just work so well together.

In March of this year, DW and I decided to go to a Sunday brunch in Centretown. Afterward, we had planned to walk around this downtown neighbourhood, to enjoy it for the first time since the Free-Dumb Convoy had been moved out.

I decided to bring my D750 with me, to take photos along our walk. But because I've taken countless photos along Elgin Street and Sparks Street over the years, I decided that I wanted to challenge myself, and so I placed my 50mm lens on the body.

You can see some of the photos that I took in the Wordless Wednesday post that followed that weekend.

Because I haven't shot many photos with my D750 since that Sunday walk, I never swapped out the lens. And any time I've decided to pick up my camera to take some shots, I've decided to keep the 50mm lens attached.

Last Friday, I decided to head out a couple of times to take some photos. I went out just after sunrise, to capture tulips at Hog's Back Park. I'll be sharing those photos in next week's Wordless Wednesday post.

That evening, I wanted to capture some more images, so I drove to Gatineau and visited the Museum of Civilization, across the river from Parliament Hill. I wanted to snap some sunset and blue-hour photographs.

When I saw a bed or tulips near the stairs that lead down, between the two buildings of the museum, I wanted to get an angle such that I'd get the flowers, up close, but would have the Parliament Buildings in the background. Working with the 50mm lens, it was a challenge, but I managed to pull it off.

You can see photos from that night, including the tulip shot with Parliament Hill, in this week's Wordless Wednesday post.

The museum provides one of the best vistas of downtown Ottawa. Not just of Parliament Hill and the high-rise buildings of the city's core, but also of the National Gallery of Canada, the Byward Market, and the Chateau Laurier.

But with a 50mm lens, you simply cannot capture it all in one shot. So, as blue hour was in full swing, I composed one frame of Parliament Hill, and another of the Chateau Laurier to the Gallery.

I couldn't decide which photo was best so I've included them both.

The 50mm lens may not always be my go-to lens in the digital age but it still can be a worthwhile piece of glass when you want to challenge yourself.

Happy Friday!

(Side note: today marks the 100^th post on The Brown Knowser for 2022. Thanks for stopping by!)