A few weeks ago I blogged about the latest lens added to the stable. This week I want to talk about a lens that I have had for a while. I would like to talk a bit about my telephoto lens. It is an awesome action lens that I have used to shoot things like; bull riding, barrel racing, golf, dock diving, lure coursing and flyball.
But wait? Bull riding? Barrel racing? Golf? Yes my friends that is correct. As variety is the spice of life, know that sometimes I will challenge myself by shooting other subjects and in other styles. I am convinced that shooting personal projects or subjects other than pets just makes me a stronger photographer.
But back to my telephoto, it is also an awesome portrait lens. It creates an effect called bokeh (BOH-kay). What is that? Bokeh is when the background is blurred or out of focus in such a way that the background appears creamy. It is important to note that your main subject still needs to be in focus.
The human eye is attracted to contrast light and dark or in focus and soft focus. So if your background is softly focused your eyes are likely to be drawn into the more focused part of the image.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, allow me to include some images that were taken with my telephoto lens. Whether I am shooting sport or portrait, I love having this lens as an option.
I might be doing my peers and I a disservice waxing poetic about my lens because every photographer has had at least one person say, “You must have a good camera.” A good camera does not a good photographer make. In much the same way that your favourite restaurant is not your favourite because the chef has a good stove.
Back in the day there used to be a cheap camera challenge on DigitalRev TV’s Youtube channel. It was a show hosted by Kai Wong. He would frequently invite famed photographers onto his show and challenge them to do photo shoots with toy cameras, broken cameras or some other type of limitation. In every case the professional photographer would still be able to capture really compelling images. It is more about the eye behind the lens and the imagination that drives the eye than it is about the gear.
In other words new equipment just allows me to expand my repertoire to capture the images that will best grace your walls.