THE ONLY TWO LENSES YOU NEED

I've been getting paid for my photo work for over a decade now and in that time I have learned one thing I don't need more and in fact less is more I've gotten into debt for photography I've gotten in a debt for videography I've bought things that I thought were going to change my world things that I saw other people had success using but it was all for naught for the simple reason of I just didn't put the gear that I had to work things sat on the Shelf money was wasted and by the time that I realized what I did and I resell it I'm taking a loss because I missed a return window or that specific piece of gear doesn't hold as high value anymore I'm one of those people that believes in everything you're doing sports photography wedding photography engagements and elopements portrait photography group photos event work street photography whatever it is two lenses is all you need and to a lot of people this may even seem like Overkill [Music] please [Music] foreign let me just preface this by saying if you have more than two lenses I don't care I don't care for you to comment down below to tell me the reason why I use multiple lenses I am here to tell you that I am not coming at you I am telling people who feel pressure and who feel the need to purchase more gear due to gear acquisition syndrome and from the constant comparison of themselves to other people here on YouTube or to other workers beside them listen you don't need more gear what you need to do is master and be able to create an image and a process and a flow and a look with the gear that you have that will set you apart more than you having the newest 1.0 or 1.2 lens so right here I have a 28 millimeter and a 50 millimeter lens and in everything that I've done for the length of my time as a professional this has been my go-to I tried 35 millimeter I've tried 75 Etc I've done a lot of things I've gone out and branched out to 24 millimeter I've tried 40 millimeter this is my bread and butter now let me touch really quickly on the divisiveness of the fact that I love 28 millimeter and 50 millimeter for everything except for basically Sports Photography and to me why those are the two lenses that I always go for and reach for and purchase a lot of people hate on 28 millimeter because they say oh it's because your camera phone listen I don't use my camera to take photos I don't but whenever it comes to 28 millimeter I love the focal length because I feel like it gives me an opportunity to capture more layering on 28 millimeters is one of the greatest thing and this lens is so versatile from environmental portraiture because this lens I feel like is at the end of the end of not having crazy Distortion Like a 24 millimeter when you get close up to a subject to even being able to use this for architecture and Landscape but more importantly for street photography this lens can really just do it all I love these 28 millimeter lenses I feel like they are some of the most versatile things ever people think that 35 is the most versatile lens and I don't believe that 35 I feel like is trying to be 28 and trying to be 50 and when you're caught in between I always feel like I'm wanting more length or even worse I'm feeling like I wanted a wider view because I feel like I'm cutting off my subject 35 millimeter I feel like I'm always cutting off knees I'm cutting off legs I'm cutting off limbs I feel like there's not enough reach there whenever I have 28 millimeter I'm able to adjust not only where I'm standing meaning from a plane of forward and backward but also an up and down shooting from the hip on 28 millimeters is one of the funnest things whenever it comes to street photography whenever it comes to documenting photography and it's one of the reasons why on Fujifilm system the 18 millimeter F2 at 27 millimeter field of view is one of my favorite lenses of all time and one of the reasons why I fall in love with 28 millimeter on every camera system whether it's Canon Sony Nikon whether it's Leica whether it's Fujifilm I always have a 28 millimeter with me whenever I give one up I always come back because to me this is one of the Holy Grail lenses that can do anything so exerting myself into this little area quick to speak on yesterday I actually went to a gallery and a community event held by light catchers which is a non-profit after school program that empowers youth in the San Antonio the east side of San Antonio school system these are six some fifth graders to speak on social justice issues that are happening in their community and this year they chose to speak on gun violence in east side San Antonio and these Elementary School students were creating amazing work speaking on this from interviews and photojournalism detailing conversations with parents who had lost children to gun violence to just the pictures and the stories they told about the community the people in the community that are going against it a mural was painted of a teacher that has impacted their life which is amazing that the teacher was surprised with it it was fantastic to see the community come out and support and if you would also like to support and you live in the San Antonio area we're actually having an event called cameras kicks and coffee happening this Friday June 16 from 5 to 8 pm at bright coffee you'll need to register in a link at the color coffee Collective there's a link in their bio and it's going to be a fantastic thing it was great to be able to see them out it was great to be able to take the 28 millimeter out and take some environmental photos just shooting conversations with people and everything and just really shows that in an event situation how versatile it is as well as how you can always make it into a pseudo portrait lens now let's get real about 50 millimeter and the hate that this lens gets listen it's just not fair 50 millimeter is a staple lens and a lot of people say that it's boring and the reason why they say that it's boring has nothing to do with the field of view it has nothing to do with the compression the reason why it's boring is because what people care more about than actually having a good image and a good image that looks realistic is now people care about depth of field and their Boca horse 50 millimeter at F 1.2 F 1.0 even 50 millimeter at f2 whatever it is whenever you're here shooting a summicron doesn't give you the same look as an 85 millimeter 1.8 or 1.4 whenever you're only shooting wide open people will say 35 millimeter that's the best lens a fast 35 millimeter is better than anything and I don't believe that again 35 millimeter has the issue of whenever it's trying to be a portrait lens or whenever I'm trying to reach out to gather more information I have nowhere else to go I don't believe in a one size uh you know fits all kind of lens I don't believe in a do-it-all lens what I believe in are lenses that have limitations and working to those limitations but the only issue is on the 35 millimeter I feel like I have limitations going both ways and with 50 millimeter I don't feel like that I know how to get a wider shot on 50 millimeter or to set up a shot with depth on 50 millimeter for street photography or for event work the same way that a 50 millimeter I know immediately how to set up for portraits I know what things are going to look in vertical orientation that I'm not going to get a whole bunch of warp on the lower extremities of someone and slams I also know that when I'm taking a portrait with this lens that how the the fall off is going to happen whenever it comes to uh in Focus area to out of focus area at f2 at 1.4 I know what to expect and it's always going to be stunning people always like to take shots at things that aren't exotic anymore but we'd still love to point out the amazing things that are accomplished with the non-exotic things Henry Cartier brassonne Gordon Parks I mean you name it Annie Leibovitz people that really cut their teeth on 50 millimeter and really just went out and showed out on 50 millimeter we love to repost their work and talk about how fantastic they were and talk about how man they were amazing artists and how we love their images and how do I get that look but whenever it comes to the field of view that they used it's not good enough anymore and by the way 50 millimeter lenses are usually some of the smallest ones in every kit and Everyone likes small lenses also backpacking off that this morning at the time me creating this I took a photo walk with one of my good friends Alexander Gokey he is a professional photographer and photography educator here in San Antonio Texas and we walked around one after we went to one of my favorite coffee spots bright Coffee in San Antonio we walked around the area and just got to do what I call some relaxed street photography mostly photographing places and things not people homes structures Etc busy places and just looking for colors and things we had some great conversations Alex of course is shooting on uh 28 millimeter 50 millimeter effective focal lengths something that he picked up from bench high so shout out binge heish so I'm rocking the uh 18 millimeter X pro 2. boom how many lenses do you need to have a good kit do you think man honestly I'd say two I keep it wide and then uh I have one tight lens so 18 millimeter on a Fuji it's like 28 mil and then a rocket 35 which is 50 mil and then portraits and all the type stuff on the 35 and then 18 is wide documentary Street and we just got to just make some photos we got to walk around and just really just conversate and talk about what things are like from film photography digital photography how do you feel about presets and why they're such a Negative stigma against that unless you use burnt rust copper orange presets I don't understand the the height of of that people being enamored by that it's just a weird look to me but we just talked about a lot of things that have to do with photography how business is going ways that we can exceed in it and just about street photography in general it's always nice to be able to walk out with your buddies take some good photos see them take better photos than you and really humbles you in the long run really quickly I also want to touch on the fact that I know that I'm not touching all the spots whenever it comes to different types of Photography but the rules still apply and they're basically the same when it comes to a wedding photographer a sports photographer which I am a documentary photographer we put a lot of onus on oh you got to have all this gear and you got to bring all this stuff but I don't necessarily ever think that's the case bringing a lot of gear doesn't do anything but either leave a lens out or just cause a lot of confusion on what you're going to go with next usually people are shooting with two bodies one wide one telephoto and that's the way you're getting through it unless you're in Annie Leibovitz whenever Rolling Stone was starting out and she bought a Nikon with a 90 a Nikon with like a 50 and then a Nikon with a 28 or a 24. you know running three cameras isn't truly something that we see anymore when it comes to these events and switching camera lenses means that we're missing shots or means that you know if we have to keep the same lenses on the same bodies as as to not miss these shots we just have something in our bag that's just sitting and doing nothing it can become frustrating you guys know what your bread and butter is and you should link to that in sports photography I always have a 70 to 200 millimeter equivalent or recently I've been going more towards the 150 to 300 from Sigma a fantastic lens I believe that that is going to take about 70 of all of my images no matter what but always have a wider lens usually a 50 millimeter lens on a second body to be able to capture things uh you know that are close up and just be able to switch to really quickly it doesn't mean that I don't I wouldn't benefit from getting a another telephoto lens or another uh you know wide Zoom Etc but because I've learned that this is my bread and butter and these are always give me what I need and this is where I need to be for this example of uh soccer a football baseball and no matter what these two lenses can do it I just stick with those two lenses whenever I start adding more lenses to my bag and more lenses to my system and my workflow all that means is there are going to be times where I have a chance of saying I wish I had the 50 for that I wish I had the 150 to 300 I wish I had a 70 to 200 for that the shot would have been better the shot would have been tighter the shot would have been wider so find what you need and stick to it it doesn't mean that buying more gear is bad but you got to remember the niche gear honestly that should be left for rentals and for as needed basis that should be paid for by the people that are assigning you to an assignment whether it's for portraits family portraits whether it's for sports whether it's for weddings build that into your bid to be able to rent that gear you would rather just have them cover the cost and still get the good work then you sink in another two uh one to two to three thousand dollars on gear that let's just face it you may not use enough to be even worth worth the uh price of point of entry uh versus just renting it for fifty to a hundred dollars for your two days and then calling it good and never seeing it until you need it again I firmly believe that from wedding photography Sports Photography whatever it is you only need two lenses whether it's two primes two zooms a prime and a zoom mix it doesn't matter you can get 99 of what you want to get done with these lenses and everyone always thinks about well it's that one percent that gets you and it's absolutely not because with two lenses you can still achieve the one percent if you know what you're doing and marketing and information that comes from camera manufacturers continues to tell us that well you need more you need more you need more when honestly if you have less decisions are quicker choices are made easier and the images always end up looking crisper foreign [Music]

Channel: Dee Rosa

Views: 51,988

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Id: VdvvKAQXlaM

Length: 13min 40sec (820 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 11 2023