I recently had a conversation with some fellow photographers about lens recommendations for a beginner.  As usual, up came the topic of the much maligned “kit lens” — usually a smallish aperture, plasticky mid-range zoom lens that trades on the used market for ~$100.  It doesn’t matter if it’s from Canon, Nikon, Sony, or Pentax, the “kit lens” has become a derogatory phrase used to describe what most would call a mediocre lens.

However, the kit lens is useful for a lot of reasons, just as a fast prime, like a 50mm f/1.8 or similar (I mention this one because it’s usually the OTHER beginner lens that people recommend) is useful as a learning tool.  With a cheap midrange zoom, the new photographer isn’t plunging deep into the expensive waters of fast, professional glass, and he or she has the opportunity to try various focal lengths to find what suits them best.  He might shoot for a while, find that he is always on the 55mm end of the lens and decide he needs something longer, like a telephoto.  Or she might find that she enjoys shooting epic landscapes, and that a wide angle lens is right for her.  Or they both might decide that that the kit lens is limiting because of it’s smallish apertures, and move on to a fast prime for shallower DOF and better subject separation.

Wherever it leads, the kit lens is a good tool for general photography, and for helping to orient someone to various focal lengths and photography in general.  What does all this have to do with a challenge, you say?

Well, the kit lens is oft-maligned because it is so frequently and mostly used by rank amateurs who may or may not be great photographers — in other words, a lot of garbage photos get taken with the kit lens.  Generally, unless someone is very well off and/or enjoys expensive hobbies, he’s not going to get started with top-shelf L primes or professional zooms (yes, I know, there are exceptions to that rule).  Then there is the perception that you need those expensive professional zooms to take great photos, since most pros use them.  Indeed, the more expensive lenses are generally optically superior, have larger maximum apertures for more flexibility in different light, and focus more quickly, but a lot of what pros are paying for is for the dust and moisture sealing, the sturdier build, the reliability.  To trot out a tired analogy, just because you have paintbrush doesn’t mean you can paint the Mona Lisa.  Sure, a nicer paintbrush might make it more pleasant to paint, and might save you some time (can paint brushes do that?), but the skill and the knowledge have to be there already to know what to do with that brush.

So here, finally, is the challenge: I told my colleague, this photographer who suggested that the kit lens wasn’t good value for money, that I would take on the challenge of shooting a salable image with the kit lens, and include it amongst the images I was delivering to a client.  So confident am I that the lens can get the job done, I made this brash claim.  Only problem is, I don’t have a camera that will take a Canon EF-S lens (APS-C sized sensors… if you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, it just means the lens won’t physically mount on either of my cameras).  Fortunately, another esteemed colleague of mine has a Rebel XTi moldering away in his closet somewhere, he having moved on to bigger and better things.  He volunteered to loan it to me if I bought the kit lens, and so the challenge started coming together.

And so here we stand — the infamous kit lens — the Canon EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 lens that came standard with the Rebel XT, 20D, and 30D — is on its way to me, and hopefully soon after a Rebel XTi to which to mount it.  Once I have them both, I’ll bring them on a paid shoot and use the kit lens to prove that it’s up to the task.  It may be hubris, it may come from wild claims after having a little too much wine, but I have confidence that even in Canon’s lowly consumer line there is optical quality to be found.

And more importantly, I’m fully confident that it’s not really the gear that makes the difference, anyway.

In some ways, shooting portraits of musicians is old hat — portraits are what I shoot mostly, after all.  But each shoot is a new opportunity to be enriched by talented and interesting people, and to make new contacts, and to try new things.  These were my first posed shoots with instruments, for example, and it was fun to try to figure out how to pose them with those instruments to showcase both the artist and their musical tools.

I also think that what musicians do is somewhat analogous to what photographers do — their playing is part craft, part art, and soul and emotion are every bit as important as any other art.  Where they have an oboe and a violin, we have a camera and a lens.  Just as a musician can be technically proficient without any soul in their music, so can a photographer take lifeless, but technically perfect, photographs.

Without waxing too poetic, it was really fun to meet Dovid and Melanie, to have a little bit of time to get to know them, to have that moment in their lives and to try to capture it all in a way that is authentic and beautiful.  I hope that I’ve achieved that for them, and that my photographic life will continue to be filled with interesting opportunities and tremendously talented people.

I just wanted to take a moment to compliment my wonderful, crafty wife who made these party favors recently.  Our friends Amanda and Eli are getting married in a few weeks, and Hanna made these birds nests — complete with eggs and origami birds — for an engagement/bridal party we threw for them.

She also made some great food and other decorations, but I really liked how these little packages came out.

Good job, honey!

I haven’t updated the photoblog recently because it’s been really hot (record hot!) and humid, keeping me from being out shooting for myself, and I am gearing up for a wedding in August and one in September.  In the meantime, I still feel like I should update the blog from time to time, hopefully with something interesting and worth reading.  And I realize that I might just be shouting out into empty space here, but I’m wondering what anyone might be interested in reading about.  I know that I find blogs about photo gear and technique to be really interesting, as well as those that discuss the state of the industry — not just the photographer’s industry, but the technological industry that brings us new cameras and lesnes.  It’s neat to find out which new technologies are making an impact (micro 4/3rds), and which cameras are selling well for their makers.

For someone visiting this site, though, I’m not sure what you’d be interested in reading about, so you tell me?  I’ve purposefully avoided technical or gear talk in my photoblog before, but maybe you all want to hear about that, or something else entirely.

If anyone is interested in some sort of photo workshop, please leave a comment on this post or contact me through the website.  It’s not restricted to friends, necessarily, so if you are a visitor reading this and might be interested, please introduce yourself!

I also would like to know what times/days would be convenient for people — it’s much easier for me to schedule if I have some idea of when other people are free — as many of  you know, my schedule is very irregular so this is something I have to plan out in advance.

If no one’s interested, that’s okay, too, but I thought I’d throw it out there!  I always love an excuse to get out to shoot and/or hang out with people who share an interest in photography!

Patrick, Brianna, and McClain — I can’t wait to set up some time to get you some photos that we can show off!

Jessica and Brian, I learned, are North Carolinians working with disaster relief in Mississippi.  They are getting married at Duke Gardens in a few months, and were in town to do some planning and to get some engagement photos.  I hope their time was well-spent on a blustery, nearly-stormy Memorial Day!  They were a great couple to work with, having sought me out because they didn’t want traditional, posed, unnatural shots.  I really enjoyed getting to know them, and spending some time observing their dynamic together.