Lens Series Part 4: Little Details

When we got started in photography, we read a lot of information from a lot of different people about what equipment to buy and when. We did some things right and we did some things wrong. And we want YOU to be able to learn from what we did so that you can do it better! Hopefully this will help you if you are just getting started or need a little bit of help wherever you are in your journey! We want to help! You can catch up on our lens series here:

Part 1: Getting Started
Part 2: Going Long
Part 3: Creamy Dreamy
Part 4: Little Details
Part 5: The Whole Picture
Bonus: Secret Weapon

By the time we had collected our first few lenses, we were feeling very good! With each new lens purchase, the quality of our work was improving dramatically. Now, as we mentioned at the very beginning, it’s not the equipment that makes the photographer. But they are tools in our hands and when you have the right tools, it allows you to do your job at your highest possible level. And we felt like we were cruising along! We were capturing the day. We were capturing the people. We were capturing the moments. However, there was something missing. Something SO important: the DETAILS! We are both detail people, especially Alyssa. Alyssa loves the little things that make the day come together beautifully. The things that most people wouldn’t notice right away. But we just weren’t able to shoot those the way we really wanted.

Then one day, a photographer friend of ours let us borrow his macro lens. We used it for one wedding and our eyes were immediately opened to what we had been missing. The details were sharp. They were up close. This is what we had been needing! And almost without hesitation (like, the next week!) we invested in our next lens: the Canon 100mm 2.8 macro.

This lens allows us to get super close to the tiny things that are so important. In fact, the macro lens is designed to be able to focus on subjects that are very small and very close to the lens. It does a masterful job of letting us take gorgeous ring photos that highlight every little aspect of the ring. It gives us the opportunity to show off every single detail of the wedding day from the bride’s Kate Spade shoes to the groom’s custom cufflinks. These are the details that make the wedding come together and give it meaning!

This lens is also versatile in that it does several other jobs outside of taking gorgeous detail photos. Because it has a long focal length at 100mm, we can use it for ceremonies when necessary. We have already talked about the fact that Ryan uses the 70-200mm for ceremonies while Alyssa uses the 24-70mm. But sometimes the church is so big that Alyssa needs the 100mm to be able to get in close enough. The 100mm is also amazing at portraits. It’s not quite as versatile as the 70-200mm because it doesn’t zoom. That’s why Ryan prefers the 70-200mm. But, in a pinch, the 100mm macro does a GREAT job at compressing those backgrounds and giving us that soft, dreamy feeling in our images.

Here are a few examples of the 100mm macro at work!

This lens goes with us everywhere and gets used on every engagement session and every wedding. When it’s time for it to do its job, no lens does it better than the 100mm macro! It has such an important job and we are so glad to have it everywhere we go!

Next week we will be talking about our final lens. It has a specialty job as well and we will tell you more about it next time!