when people hear that my lenses don’t zoom…they look at me like i told them i survive off of bubble gum and rainbows. i really think they decide right then and there that i am literally crazy…like, my brain goes haywire. instead of explaining myself 3 billion more times…i’m just going to throw this blog post out there and hope everyone that has ever wondered why i choose to shoot with prime lenses, runs across it!so let me add this in right here and now…i will occasionally shoot with a zoom. this is a rare occasion. usually it’s a wedding ceremony with greater than 75 guests. but it’s only if i absolutely have to shoot with a zoom lens. other than that…a prime is my favorite.

here are the 5 top reasons why i choose to shoot with prime lenses

1} low light

i don’t know if you understand technical terms like aperture, f-stop or “stop down”…but i will tell you this. when my lens can go down to an aperture of 1.4….i can almost shoot in a dark room or a darker area without having to bring in artificial light. don’t take this wrong…i still bring artificial lights along, i just prefer to shoot in natural light. my prime lenses give me the option to shoot down to 1.8 and 1.4, where as a zoom will only allow me to go to 2.8! this seems like a tiny jump to most, but in photography…this is a pretty significant difference.

2} clean color and sharpness

i once shot a ceremony and used my zoom lens for the bride and groom being announced and then exiting the ceremony because that is what was already on my main camera body…and then i had time to switch to my 50mm for the bridal party’s exit. guess what…the color and sharpness of the bridal party’s exit shots greatly outshine the bride and grooms exit shots. there is a time and place for a zoom lens during a wedding and i believe {in my style of shooting} that is ONLY during the ceremony when i need that massive 70-200 on my camera body, but you better believe my 50mm and 85mm lenses are literally at my fingertips, waiting to be placed back on my camera!

3} it forces me to move

i love to be lazy. i really do. i will write all of my emails, blog posts and Facebook posts on my laptop so i can sit comfortably on my couch in the morning rather than walking 3 feet over to my desktop…that is sitting there…just waiting to be used. all because i want to be lazy! it’s embarrassing to admit, but here we are… 🙂 by using a lens that doesn’t allow me to just stand there and try to get variety by zooming in and out i am forced to move my feet and get new angles, find creative crops for your image and guess what…sometimes i get a better idea for posing when i am having to move and pay attention to my surroundings. so when you’re wondering why i’m breathing heavy and sweating during our portrait time, it’s because i’m burning off my two cups of coffee moving my little feet!

4} bokeh

you are probably wondering what the heck that is! bokeh…pronounced bo-kuh. it’s that beautiful, creamy looking blur you see in photographs. a lens that has a longer focal length, like an 85mm, and a lower aperture like 1.4, will have more bokeh than a shorter lens like a 35mm shot at an aperture of 4. some people LOVE bokeh in their shooting and others want a little less because they want to include more detail in the background of their portraits. i personally, love bokeh. if i could rename my horse, i would rename her bokeh.

5} speed

my prime lenses focus really, really fast. i have a little boy that is almost 3…and a fast focusing lens was PRIORITY when he was learning to walk because, let’s face it…he never walked, he just ran! the speed of a prime lens, along with the low light capabilities is unmatched by ANY zoom that i have ever shot with. when there is a zoom lens that get’s down to 1.4, i may start shooting zooms…but until then, i am sticking with my fast prime lenses!

below are two examples from my 50mm 1.8, these were shot at f 2.0 – notice the beautiful swirly effect of the light behind the couple…that is bokeh!