Photography Dreams (or ramblings)

I believe that I have mentioned that one of the benefits of travel is that it sparks my photography. It gives me different, interesting environments to capture, it provides so many moments with and of my children that I want to record, and the relaxation always promotes creativity.

I dream of all the lenses that I would love to own--and realistically may never. So. I have a plan. I'm going to RENT one of those lenses that I dream of for vacation. Now, you savvier readers may say--but a rental fee could be part of savings to buy a lens. While this is true, it is such a small percentage of the purchase price that it really can be justified to "try" this sucker out before investing in it.

If you are not "into" photography, you may be scratching your head wondering how much a little lens could be. Well, let me tell you. Any lens that I look at now is well over $400. And those are not even the professional level lenses. There is one lens that I lust after that is $1,200.00. Yep, more than double what my camera body (with no lens) cost. So, to pay $50 or so to rent for a week (for a special occasion and special pictures) seems like a pretty good deal.

So, for the Florida trip, I'm renting a fish eye lens. I'm going to have fun with that one! If I really have fun with it--I may rent it again for another trip.

And, if you saw my basketball photo attempts previously, you know I don't have a lens appropriate for that. So, I found a week on our activity calendar that has: Betsy cheerleading, Zac & Jake playing in a solo competition, Daisy on a field trip and Jake at a Science Olympiad competition. I'm going to rent the 85 mm 1.8 that is raved about for those low light indoor activities (no flash). If I love it, that lens is at least in the range of possibility to save for.

I'll be excited to at least have access to them for a little bit to try them out. This could be an ongoing topic here at my blog. Photography dreams. My favorite type of photography leans more towards journalistic and sports photography. I like finding the picture with my eye. I don't necessarily like creating a shot. I really don't like portrait photography--it's very complicated with posing, creating lines, angles, etc. I think it may be the most difficult type of photography, yet the area where you will see all sorts of premature businesses crop up. You know--someone who's told their pictures are great and they decide they should get paid to do it on the side. I like photographing family and trying to make the photo as flattering as possible... I would never want my own studio. I'm loving natural light and am happy to have ditched my flash. I really thought I wanted an external flash for awhile--now I'm not so sure. My husband is always happy to hear about something that I don't want!!