Wow, I actually got to a point where I was busy enough to forget to write for this blog. As of last week, I broke my streak of writing, and it would have been my 28th blog in a row of putting my thoughts to (digital) “paper”. It’s crazy to think that I’ve been writing blogs since February, and that I’ve kept up such consistency, something that’s always been extremely difficult for me to do because of the issue that come with having ADD. And when I realized that I’d missed my (now normal) weekly post, I felt a weird sense of both disappointment from forgetting to write, and pride after finding out that I’d been so consistent for so long.
I didn’t really have an idea in mind when I started writing, it was kind of like my photography journey, I just kind of dived head first into it and let it take me where it was going to take me. But I’m extremely happy that I did start my little blog post writings, so that I now have a marker in time of where I was at, what I was doing, how I was feeling (good and bad), and even what goals I had at the time. Writing never (and I do me NEVER) came naturally to me, since as I mentioned before I have ADD, I also was and still am to a point a phonetic speller, and the biggest part that always stopped me was that I never knew how to write for myself, instead I’d always write with the thought of someone other than me reading it. But I feel now that I’ve learned to control (to an extent) my ADD, I’ve learned how to overcome my phonetic spelling issue (spellcheck is also a huge help, but my great grandma deserves the most amount of thanks), and largely I had something going that meant a lot to me and I wanted to document for my future self to look back on. I finally was able to break free of my reserve and let the words flow naturally.
But enough about writing, and more about what I was doing that made it to where I forgot to write. Which was going out on another photoshoot for True Northwest Magazine, this time I was going to be doing a shoot for a cute little clothing store in downtown Seattle. Like most things I do, I wanted to continue to improve from the last shoot, so I thought about where I felt I was lacking from the shoot I did with Mina. I felt confident in how I was getting Mina into poses, but definitely felt like I was at odds with my lenses I had for the shoot (Sigma 35mm f1.4 and the Sony 85mm f1.8), I just felt like I was either too far away or too close to Mina after getting her in position. Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the photoshoot I did with Mina, and the images that we were able to get, I just felt like I was wasting time by either swapping out lenses, or repositioning myself constantly.
After describing my frustrations I was having with a friend of mine, they suggested I look into a 50mm lens, as it’s almost identical to the view of our own eyes, which means I would have a much better “composition positioning” time. I was extremely excited and intrigued by this, and I’d never heard that 50mm was so close to what we see before. So I started looking into 50mm lenses (which there are plenty of, and at plenty of price points as well), and then I remembered that Glazers Camera in Seattle had a rental department. I checked their selection of lenses and saw a few options of 50mm, a Sigma Art f1.4 version, a Sony f1.4 GM, and a Sony f1.2 GM. Hearing a lot about the Sony 50mm f1.2 GM lens, and how beautiful the images look straight out of camera, I figured why not go for the top of the line.
The day before the shoot I figured I’d head down to Seattle to pick up my rental, then go find the shoot location, and afterwards take this new lens out for a spin to get use to it. While I was at Glazers, I talked with the folks behind the counter, and they asked what I was going to be shooting. I told them I was going to do a shoot for a magazine, kind of a portrait style and a business showcase as well. After my answer they asked if I had ever used a 135mm for anything, and I told them I’d never used a prime lens 135, but I’d shot a couple things at 135 using my 70-200mm. When they heard this, they asked if I wanted give it a try as well, to which I said “sure, why not”.
I left Glazers with one more lens than I thought I was going to, and headed to Simple Life clothing, before heading out to do a test. But after finding out that Simple Life is only a couple blocks from Pike Place Market, I decided to pull an audible and park down by Pike Place, so I could walk up to Simple Life and test the lenses along the way (before and after). Once parked, I also had the idea that this would probably make for a good YouTube video, so making another split second decision, I grabbed my second camera body, slapped my 14-24mm lens on it with my Rode NTG mic, hit record and away I went.
Being a novice “Vlogger” I stupidly forgot that I was going to test the lenses out while walking to Simple Life, and only took a few shots with the 50mm before arriving to my location. Thinking on my feet though, I wrapped up my video after going in and meeting Pamela for the first time (owner of Simple Life), and focused on testing the lenses the entire time I walked back to the car, which gave me a wonderful surprise. The moment I put my camera up to my eye with the 50mm on it, I fell in love with this lens. It was exactly like told to me, I basically saw my composition before the camera was even there. I ran around Pike Place, looking for anything of interest and snapping away happily.
I was having so much fun I forgot that I had two lenses to try out, so once remembering I tossed the 135mm on, and that’s where things took a turn (not for the worst, more of a curve ball I guess). The 135mm is so drastic of a change from 50mm, I had a rough time getting use to it, and honestly I think I took less photos with the 135mm than I did with the 50mm. But by the end of the day I could see that I was mostly struggling to use it for street photography, but had a better idea of how I could better use it the next day at the photo shoot.
Now, before I go into another section that describes how the Simple Life photo shoot went, I’m going to send you here - https://youtu.be/8Z_k54hLlLU - which is the video that shares everything, and has the photos from Pike Place and a few from Simple Life as well.
I will finish up this blog post where the video left off though. I truly did fall in love with that 50mm f1.2 GM lens, so much so that I went on a hunt to find a used version (as the new version is a $2000+ lens). But after two weeks of searching, I found that it’s a lens that doesn’t get traded in very often, so I concluded that I’d wait to save up for a new version. And then the world pulled off another uncanny miracle, after searching Glazers used department, Kenmore Cameras used department, B&H’s used department, and a website called MPB for two weeks only to come up with nothing, I found not just one but eight (yes EIGHT) 50mm f1.2 G-Master lenses. One of which was at Glazers, and the next day was in my bag to join my growing collection of prime lenses.
I’ve never fallen so in love with a lens before, and I can’t honestly explain to you why I love this lens as much as I do. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that it’s so easy to use and compose an image with, I don’t know if it’s the super shallow depth of field that comes with a f1.2 lens, or if it’s the insane sharpness and quality that a G-Master (GM) lens offers. But I will say that I will never go anywhere to shoot anything without it. I will also never underestimate the awesomeness that comes from renting lenses.
I hope you can forgive me for missing a week of writing (even though like I mentioned above, these writings aren’t always 100% intended for readers beyond myself), but I hope this lengthy post makes up for it, and that you enjoyed the read once again. I’m not sure if I’ll hit another 5 month consistency streak, but I know I’ll try my best to keep up my writings and documenting my adventures.
Until next time, I hope you have great days and I’ll catch y’all later. Oh and if you’d like to check out the photos I took, make sure to watch the video (https://youtu.be/8Z_k54hLlLU) for the Pike Place photos, and pick up the Summer 2023 issue of True Northwest Magazine at - https://www.truenwmagazine.com/shop - to see my photos of Simple Life Clothing, as well as the photos from Mina’s shoot.
Andrew Hoyle - Grimlock Media
