A lesson from Bresson

Whenever out and about taking photos, I’ve always used my 18-200 lens because of its versatility. Having read yesterday that Henry Cartier-Bresson often stuck to one 50mm lens, I thought I’d give it a try. I’ve had a 50mm lens for a while now and due to its 1.8 aperture, I’ve mainly used it for a narrow depth of field or low light situations.  

Bresson’s take on the subject appears to be that by using the one focal length, you can develop a better idea of how your photographs will look as you see a scene. The 50mm focal length also has the benefit of producing images almost as the eye sees. A family trip to the beach seemed like a perfect opportunity to try this out as there was plenty of space to move around while getting used to not having a zoom.

After a bit of running back and forth to get the right shots, I quickly found myself developing an instinctive feel for the distance needed between myself and the subject. 
I started to think about the benefits of using this lens more often:

·       Develop an instinctive knowledge of the focal length

·       A nice wide aperture to help with low light and narrow depth of field

·       Much lighter to lug about than larger lenses

There are drawbacks:

·       There will be times I just can’t fit everything I want in shot

·       No zoom means if I can’t get close, I can’t get the shot

I’ve added a few shots from the day: 

Larger versions of these images can be seen on Flickr: Hornsea

I plan to spend the next couple of months, just using my 50mm lens for days out, developing my street photography skills.

Watch this space...