Multipurpose Lenses and Filters

The multipurpose lens is called that for a reason.  It is used by many photographers that have to go from a wide angle to zooming in.  Wedding photographers use this type of lens extensively from taking group shots to zooming in on the couple as they take their first dance.  The Cheetah image was taken with the zoom part of a 35mm – 70mm and the fstop set at 5.6.  This gave a very focused eyes and face with a nice blurred background to make the Cheetah stand out. 

The next image was taken with the 45mm.  With the 45mm lens it is as if you are their almost a 1:1 aspect ration.  The shutter speed was slowed down to give the water a blurry texture.  That is to help give it the artist touch if you will.  You need to add visual appeal.  It would still be a beautiful image but by blurring the water the eye makes the mental note that something is different and it is appealing.  This helps keep your viewer looking a little longer and wondering….

A 35mm would give the images a more wide angel.  This is great for group shots but you need to be a bit closer.  Landscape artist use the wide angel a lot to capture huge vistas.  A fish eye lens really distorts things and can be used t really add some unique perspective.  It certainly is a unique look.

I should have used a polarizing filter in the above image.  A polarizing filter would have gotten ride of the glare from the water.  Next time you look at an image with a water fall make note of any reflective water.  There will probably be none if you see the has vivd colors and the water has the "cotton candy" effect.  If you look at the same image from someone who took a "snap" shot you will probably see glare from the water and the colors will not be a s vivid.  You can get the cotton candy effect from a pocket camera that lets you shoot in a "slow" shutter speed.  A tripod is a good idea as it is hard to hold a camera complete still for the second or two to get the image.

That is a very brief introduction to lenses. I felt a need to give this brief introduction before I started to talk about how the photographs are taken. It is easy to talk about the technical but it is trying to convey the artistic of photography that is the challenge. As time goes on I will talk more about the lenses and how I used them to create the photographs that you see.