New Lens

For Mother's Day, Alex "let me" (really, he encouraged me) buy a new lens for my Canon DSLR. Per blog tutorials about "mommy photography" here and here, and discussion with a family friend, I opted to buy this Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. And I love it. Just like Sara at Running Lawyer (whom I don't know but whose blog I love) says below, it's everything that I didn't realize I wanted to improve my pics.

"Because a good prime (as opposed to zoom) lens will have a much wider aperture (remember from 2 seconds ago, the wide aperture (low f/stop) is what lets in light and creates that shallow depth of field).  That cheap "kit" lens that came with your camera probably only has an aperture of f/5.6 or something.  You can get a very good prime lens (50mm f/1.8) for just over $100.  f/1.8!  That's WAY wider than f/5.6, which means it's going to really brighten up your indoor photos and help you achieve that beautiful blurry background (bokeh) you're after.  Even a good zoom lens will only go down to f/2 or so.  My 50mm goes down to f/1.4 - that's two full stops below the very best zoom lens, which means FOUR TIMES the amount of light.  That's major, y'all.  Our house is dark, I need that lens."

So here are some of the recent photos while playing around with my new lens. Granted, it's a beautiful, sunny day, which always makes for nicer pictures. But still, you can see the difference in the sharper foreground and blurrier background, all because of that fabulous, open aperture!