“To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.” – Joseph Chilton Pearce
A few weeks back I decided to rent a fixed focal length lens for the first time, and I would highly recommend to any photographer who hasn’t tried one to do the same. It was a lot of fun once I got used to it. The lens I used was a Canon 300mm 2.8 mk i.
Here’s what I thought..
There were a couple of things I wanted to test with the lens; one being its low light capabilities and the other was the sharpness and lovely clean backgrounds that prime lenses give you. I was immediately impressed with the focus speed and clarity. I had a couple of amazing opportunities to photograph in low light and was very pleased with the results. The images come out very well isolated with a “milky” background and shoots with incredible contrast as well. I found that the lens picked up an incredible amount of detail and sharpness, even on a cropped sensor camera.
The new challenge was shooting at a fixed distance for the first time after using a 70-200mm lens for some time. It is an interesting challenge and it forces your mind to think very differently both approaching and while in sightings. It forces you to shoot images you may not have ever thought of before. I enjoyed very much not having to worry about which focal length would be best and rather wondering how to create an image with what I could fit in the frame.
Overall I found the lens a pleasure to use and would highly recommend it in any camera kit. It takes clear, sharp and rich pictures and the focus speed is superb. The shallow depth of field is also fantastic and provides an incredible effect and never allows the background to distract from the focal point of the picture. It was an absolute pleasure working with this lens!
I have selected several images I took with the lens over a three week period. Enjoy…
A tender moment between a Tsalala female and her cub.
A young jackal pup comes out to investigate the vehicle.
A Majingalane male grooming under spotlight.
A puff adder blocking the road home one evening.
The Tsalala pride on the move in the late morning, taking advantage of the overcast conditions.
A leopard tortoise enjoying the greenery that has been absent for so long.
The Nanga female and her male cub, still blue eyed..
A young Mhangeni cub watches his siblings approaching while using our vehicle as cover.
The Flat rock male glances towards the Mashaba female during a mating bout.
A curious visitor approaches the vehicle
These pictures are fantastic!
Beautiful Photo’s! Great work Nick, it must have been fun to take these shots.
Beautiful pictures. Guess i need to try it sometime 🙂