Fourth of July and a new 50mm lens

Well, Fourth of July found me in the gym- no surprise there! It was pretty disappointing for me, both physically and photographically. My energy level was low and I was sucking wind bigtime. On top of that, I was frustrated by my camera....

After months of being forced to compensate for low light conditions in the gym by shooting at 1600 and stretching the limits of artistic license by converting 90% of my shots to black & white, I finally forked over $200 for a new 50mm lens. I bought it because it has a nice wide aperture (so it collects a lot of light) and my logic was that it would be great for shooting our CrossFit workouts in the gym. It also gives everything in the distance that wonderfully blurry appearance, isolating your subject against a backdrop of gentle diffusion.

Unfortunately, that lovely effect is the result of a very shallow depth of field, meaning you don't have much wiggle room when you are focusing this lens. This makes for lovely portraits when your subject is sitting still in a chair, but lousy action shots when your subject is moving like a freight train- a common occurrence in a CrossFit workout.

End result? Lots of fuzzy pictures. But hey, at least I was able to shoot below 400 ISO for once.

Lesson learned: Use the full range of aperture. Just because I've got f/1.4 doesn't mean I have to use it. I could probably close it a few stops and still be ok at 400 ISO while enjoying a more forgiving focal range.