Sometimes Less Is More

[Le Chef]

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Recently I’ve been on a kick of taking out just one lens for a week and I’ve been reminded how liberating it is. I also took off the handgrip to see what that was like. 

One lens means (in the case of the TL23) that I have to move to zoom. The fixed lens is at one point constraining but at the same time freeing; in that you have to decide what the lens is best at, not what you wish you could shoot. The lightness of a small lens like the TL23 is also a pleasant reminder that you don’t need to lug vast quantities of kit to enjoy photography.

Maybe this is the way everyone approaches photography, but for me it feels a fun way to hone my skills. 

[wda]

9 hours ago, Le Chef said:

Recently I’ve been on a kick of taking out just one lens for a week and I’ve been reminded how liberating it is. I also took off the handgrip to see what that was like. 

One lens means (in the case of the TL23) that I have to move to zoom. The fixed lens is at one point constraining but at the same time freeing; in that you have to decide what the lens is best at, not what you wish you could shoot. The lightness of a small lens like the TL23 is also a pleasant reminder that you don’t need to lug vast quantities of kit to enjoy photography.

Maybe this is the way everyone approaches photography, but for me it feels a fun way to hone my skills. 

A well-proven boost to photographic productivity and enjoyment.  As the years roll by, I use this method increasingly, often resurrecting an ageless Leica compact, such as the venerable X1.

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[ramarren]

I only rarely (...most usually when I'm traveling and cannot predict what I might want...) carry anything more than a single lens, on any camera, and most of the time that lens is a fast normal or a fast medium wide. I dunno: It's how I've always worked my photography. 

Rather than "zooming with my feet", I think of what I'm doing as "finding the right perspective and point of view." I've never really been all that fond of zoom lenses, for various reasons but mostly because they make me have to make too many decisions with every shot. With a prime lens, I know the framing, the perspective I get at any given distance, and have to work with that.

G

[tommonego@gmail.com]

Being winter my coats have pockets so I often carry a second lens, I may use it or may not. Recently I just had two lenses CLAd so those are the two I have been using. I also received a lens I had loaned out 10 years ago back, so have been working with that.