Through the Lens and Into My Head

I've been keeping you in suspense with this promised lens talk and honestly (because all I am is honest with you people) it got me a little nervous. What if I can't help make sense of this? What if I can't explain this lens thing well? What if I realize I really don't know what I'm doing? What if everyone finds out I'm a fraud?

I can't help but be reminded of how I felt as a new mom when I left the hospital with a tiny human being in my arms and as my husband and I attempted to get the little creature into her car-seat and we we're like, "Oh my God, if the doctors notice that we've been working this car-seat for 20 minutes, they are going to come snatch our baby away from us." You know, we've all been there. When you slowly look around asking yourself, "Does anyone else recognize that I have no idea what I'm doing?" Although I have felt like a fraud before, I don't often offer to expose that vulnerable side of myself. And here I am attempting to talk some kind of tech and I don't really know that language.

All that just to preface my disclaimer. Ready?  When I learn about photo stuff (yes, I'm still learning) I pay attention to only those things that makes sense to me, to my own brain, my learning process. Like what I need to know to get from point A to point B. That's far from hearing the things that will get me an A on the test. Because I never had to take any tests. Because my photo education consisted of Photo 101 and ONE Printmaking Class that incorporated Photography too. And the rest? Well, let's just say it was from the school of hard knocks. but I was tenacious and determined because I knew I could do it. I knew the technical would come soon enough and that all I needed to do was trust my creative tendencies. You know, believe in a little artistic magic. Are you rolling your eyes at me? I've shared it before back in the early days of this blog (at least I think I have but I couldn't find my original story to link to, darn it) but since then I have a few more readers (yay! more readers) so now, I feel I must remind all of you to be easy on me. I know of lenses only by testing, trying, making mistakes, asking questions and paying attention to what works for me. Not by knowing tech info about them. And I made a rule, as I was just starting out, to do what my very first photographer-mentor told me to. I would follow along in his methods and thought about it later. Hey, I wasn't going to question the guy. He knew what he was doing so I just followed him. Had I known I was going to turn right around and try to teach this stuff, I may have payed a little closer attention.

Regardless, here's the way I'm going to do this thing. First off, I am in no way going to reinvent the wheel. I have scoured the internet and have collected some amazing photo resources to help explain the details to you so you can get a handle on the whats and whys, if you choose to. Here are a few of the insightful and well-written links of which I speak as to lay a foundation to give you some understanding of what we're talking here. Check this one out first. Mr. Peter Marshall tells you all you ever wanted to know (and possible a few things you didn't) about lenses. You'll find great definitions of the basic lens terms, which will help us all understand each other as we talk lenses over the next few days.

I found this very detailed (and pretty complicated) "Understanding Camera Lenses" article if you really want to dissect the issue.

For reviews and personal explanations of a variety of lenses, The Digital Photography Blog has a whole bunch of different posts that you can browse through here. You'll get different photographers talking about their favorite lenses and stuff. It's cool. Reviews like this and this are brief, nicely written and very helpful.

I came across this discussion on Flickr you might like to read through. It's just normal people talking about lenses. I love hearing what people have to say. And in this case, there is a lot of talk about the "kit lenses" that come with your camera body when you opt for a kit. I know someone was asking about those.

And then there is the ever insightful John of Flagrant Disregard who besides being a friggin' computer genius, is an awesome photographer. His post at his super-cool photo blog about macro photography  offers more info than the title implies. The paragraph about magnification and ratio is quite illuminating. And then I found this gem (bookmark it!) which will prove to be helpful as you continue to learn more about photography.

Breathe everyone. Breathe.

I'll give you a day to read all this stuff and process and then I'll start posting my pix and thoughts. I have 4 lenses and so this will be a 4 or 5 or maybe 6 post series? I will file all the posts under photo basics so you can rediscover them later if need be. I'll, of course, keep it simple (unlike the glimpse into my psyche that I've just bombarded you with today). I will show you images I have taken with each of my lenses as to give you an idea of the range of view I get with each one and I will talk in Tracey terms (by now you're familiar with those) as to bring my own perspective which I hope helps.

Is your head spinning yet?  Mine is. I will say, before I wrap this marathon post up, that I am ever so thankful for these awesome photographers who go to all this time and trouble to help folks like us. I just love the internet.

Comments

[pixie sticks]

wow. amazing resource. It may take more than a day to read all this. Thanks for the great compilation. I'll be following along as my spinning head will allow.

[Melody]

I'm taking Advil and I'll be back for the "Tracey terms".

[Fauxto Bec]

Huh?

(Just kidding!) Couldn't resist!
Believe me. I know NOTHING about a camera - only where the button is to push to make a picture pop into my display screen on back.
Thanks for sharing what you know!

[Island Jen]

Soon I'm going to be emersed in the world of Lenses, Shutter priorities, apeture Priorities...and I am so thankful you are going ot be here for me.