When I was first starting out learning photography, I found the whole area of lenses kind of confusing.  I just wanted one lens that would do it all.  I now know that to have an all-round lens I’d have to sacrifice quality. Now I’d rather build slowly with good lenses than buy something I’m not going to be happy with.

I started out my kit with a 24-70mm 2.8 max aperture lens.  It’s still my go to lens that I use for most things but I’ve since added a 70-200mm 2.8 lens and a prime 50mm 1.4.  I don’t use my 50mm 1.4 enough in my portrait sessions.  Every time I use it, i kick myself for not pulling it out more.  I don’t use it often because it takes some practice.  What I love about it is that with a 1.4 aperture the images’ background fall away so quickly and become these wonderful blurry backgrounds.  What I don’t like about it is that using it with anyone who moves like toddlers, I have a low success rate at getting those sharp eyes because the plane of focus is so narrow that just a little movement throws it off.  But when I nail it…love!  Here are a couple that I took of my niece with the 50mm prime.

Christiana Childers _ S one year-100 Christiana Childers _ S one year-101

See how lovely and blurry the background is at 1.4 aperture?

Canon does have a 50mm 1.2 which is also quite nice but the people I talked to who had the 1.4 loved it and it was quite a savings without much loss in quality.

Another reason I love having the 50mm is for travel when I only want to take one lens.  It’s great in low light situations as well with the aperture all the way open.  I would recommend adding a 50mm (35mm if you have a crop sensor, ask your camera store for the equivalent lens length for your camera) to your kit!