Lenses: Heart, Soul and Eyes of a Camera
Derek Smith • 27 December 2023
Bridlington Harbour
TT Artisans 27mm f/2.8 by Derek Smith
St. Peters Church, Markby
Samyang 12mm AF by Derek Smith
Kaya
Fuji XF 50mm f/2 lens by Derek Smith
Windsurfer
Fuji XF 70-300mm, Fraisthorpe Beach by Derek Smith
Many photographers imbue their lenses used with a sense of magic, a secret sauce that produces amazing images. Whilst it is true that some lenses have a particular character in optical performance, or a warmth of colour in the resulting images, there’s no doubt that the choice of lens can improve the image taken with any camera.
I prefer to think of my set of lenses more as a tool kit, a workman’s tools to get a job done. I like to have a pair of zoom lenses to obtain a full frame focal length range from 24mm to 450mm. Shooting as I do with an APS-C sensor camera, my shorter focal length zoom lens has a range of 16-80mm (24-120mm full frame), and the longer zoom has a range of 70-300mm (105-450mm full frame), and I can confidently go out with my camera, with just these two lenses to achieve the majority of my photography – a lightweight travel kit.
To compliment the zoom lenses, I have a few of what is known as prime lenses, these have a fixed focal length. Sometimes I need a lens with a wider viewing angle for architecture, and landscape photography, my choice for this role is a prime lens with a 12mm (18mm) focal length, this was the lens used for the Church Project last year.
A prime lens with a full frame focal length of 50mm is often favoured by photographers, however from experience I prefer a wider focal length of around 40mm. To this end I have a 27mm (40.5 mm) tiny “pancake” lens that is great for street, or travel photography. I did have a 23mm (34.5mm) f/1.4 Viltrox lens, but I sent it back, and I have replaced this lens with a 30mm (45mm) f/1.4 lens, for portraiture, and travel. Specifically, for portraits I have a 50mm (75mm) f/2 lens, which renders excellent image quality, and warm colours. The importance of a bright, wide aperture of around f/1.2 to f/2 can assist in lowlight photography, and isolation of a subject within a scene with the background blurring away, an effect described by photographers as bokeh.
Choosing a prime lens to suit you: if you only currently only have a zoom lens for your camera you are in an ideal situation to choose a focal length for your needs by analysing the images taken with the zoom it will become evident which is the favoured focal length. If photographing a building interior or exterior and your back is up against a wall and you still can’t capture the whole scene, you will require either a wide angle zoom, or a prime lens. For portraiture, a prime lens can be used to full advantage, a wide aperture will provide a blurred background, and stopping down will give an environmental style of image. For travel a small pancake lens is ideal, often enabling the lens, and camera, to be carried in a day bag, or large coat pocket. For street photography many photographers like a 35mm full frame lens, whereas other more timid souls like to take photos from a distance with an 85mm full frame lens, again use your zoom lens to find the working distance comfortable to you.
In summation then, a prime lens can enable a photographer to obtain sharper, clearer images, in possibly a lighter smaller package than most of the “kit” zoom lenses supplied by camera manufacturers. Additionally, a prime lens can help to hone your compositional skills by forcing you to move around the subject.
In these sample photos, for this view of Bridlington harbour the TT Artisans AF 27mm pancake prime lens is deliberately focused on the foremost bollard as the subject, the rope marks, and sharpness of the bollard contrast with the blurred background of the harbour at f/2.8. The 50mm lens wide open at f/2 captured this portrait of my model Kaya, the skin, hair, and eye detail are faithfully captured. I used the 12mm prime lens at f/11 to capture this stunning monochrome image of St Peters Church at Markby. Lastly, a photo of a wind surfer, the 70-300mm zoom lens was indispensable here, at 300mm, f/5.6, and a shutter speed of 1/1800 to capture, and freeze the action.
Louth Photographic Society
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Roger Hance Memorial Lecture 16th October
Last night Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club gave his first ever presentation to a camera club, which we were privileged to view. His presentation consisted of portraiture, creative, and his genre of choice; wildlife. Lee is an extremely talented photographer, with a highly creative portfolio, his portraits are quite atmospheric, unusual, and capture the essence of the model, and scene. For Lee’s creative work, he buys props from charity shops, often very cheaply, reusing those props in various scenes. For his composite work he will often take one of his photos of a room, and blend it with a subject in Photoshop using “blend” modes. For wildlife he visited Lake Kerkini in Greece to photograph the Pelicans, if the sky is a little on the bland side, Lee will often over expose the image resulting in a striking white background to the subject. On safari in Africa Lee showed us some amazing images of the wildlife, the close-up images of elephants, the wildebeest migration, and this stunning image of a cheetah. Lee was ably assisted by Mike Bennett. More of Lee’s work can be found on his website: https://leedixonphoto.co.uk/ Lee his kindly given permission for his images to be used in this post. Many thanks to Lee, and Mike for an amazing evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", there was a very high-quality entry in both competitions and judge Mike Bennett had quite a job on his hands scoring the entries. Well, done to Dave Turner for first place in the Objects in the Air and Tony Gaskins for first place in the Open. All the results are on our website. This week, Wednesday 30th September, our speaker will be Lee Dixon from Cleethorpes Camera Club showing us his natural history, Creative and many other photographs he has taken. It will be the first time Lee has shown his photographs at our club. If anyone else wants to enter PDI's in the 2027 N&EMPF Exhibition, the deadline is this Wednesday at midnight. Harry is still taking entries for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight from Camera" (unedited .jpg), and "Open", to be held on Wednesday 7th October. Regards Graham
At the meeting last night Mike Bennett judged our competition with the categories of “Objects in the Air”, and “Open”. The standard of entries was excellent, and it gave Mike a tough task of judging the images, Mike gave some very good critique of the images displayed, the feedback helps members to develop compositional skills. Dave Turner was awarded first place for his image of the “Tiger Club Display Team” in the “Objects in the Air” category. Tony Gaskins was awarded first place for his image of the “Spectacular Rustgill” in the “Open” category.
Good Morning All, Last week at the club we watched the N&EMPF PDI Exhibition for 2026, it was a very good evening viewing very high standard images from all over the East Midlands. Dave Turner and I did manage to get images accepted; there is a full report on our website. This week, Wednesday 23rd September, we will hold our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open", please send entries to Harry by midnight tonight. Harry is also accepting images for the PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Straight out of the Camera (only resizing permitted)" and "Open". Regards Graham
Members were shown the 2026 N&EMPF PDI Exhibition video last night with all of the accepted PDI images in the first part, and after the break the awarded PDI images. There were some stunning images on view, and Louth was successful in having 3 PDI images accepted, Graham Harrison with his image of a Stonechat, and Dave Turner with his portrait of Paul Rudd, and his monochrome image of Kings Cross railway station "Going Down". Overall it was a good inspirational evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club members had 15 minutes to show what they had done over the summer. It was a very interesting evening with eight members taking part. There were many locations on show and as usual some excellent photography. There is a full report on our blog. This week, Wednesday 16th September, we will be showing the N&EMPF exhibition, this is part one showing all the PDI's that were accepted. This is the highest standard of photography we as individuals take part in as a club. Members sent around 50 entries but only 3 were accepted. If you are inspired to enter the 2027 Exhibition after seeing the show, I send the clubs entries and I can give you more information. Closing date is the end of September. The Maximum size for N&EMPF is 1600 x 1200 3MB sRGB Harry is still taking entries for the monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open". Harry did ask about what can be accepted, and we couldn't really say as long as it's an object in the Air. The best way is to look up the definition of an object first. Harry is also accepting entries for the Local and Open competition in October. Robin is going to judge the Open competition, does anyone fancy judging the "Straight from the camera" category? Regards Graham
The Louth Photographic Society has returned after the summer break. It was an incredible return, with members providing us with some stunning images from over the summer break. A full, and varied smorgasbord of well executed photos, many of us visited Whitby, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and further north images from Staithes, and Sandbanks. Tony showed us his long exposure minimalist calming coastal scenes, from the Lincolnshire coast, and Whitby.. Chris brought us some beautiful photos taken of local churches, many of which many of us have never seen. Now I’ve never really seen the attraction of an expensive Leica camera, but when Mark showed his photos from his visit to the German Leica factory in Wetzlar, I now understand, camera bodies, and lenses milled from solid blocks of aluminium, hand polished, hand finished lens glass, and textured leather applied to the camera body, not a robot in sight, just craftsmen, and women making a superb photographic instrument. Sue brought us “pink” ladies driving tractors to raise money for cancer research. Last but definitely not least Richard showed his monochrome, and infrared images of trees, his compositions, and photographic eye bring these tree studies to life, we appreciate them even if some judges don’t understand. Many thanks to all of those members who contributed.
Good Morning All We spent last week on the Isle of Wight visiting many of the attractions. This week, Wednesday 9th September, we are back at the club with 15-minute PDI shows of what you did during the summer break, I have Derek Smith, Tony Gaskins, Harry Kerman, Chris Birchmore and Richard Hildred on the list, if I have missed you off, please let me know. I should be there but could be late as away playing golf. Harry is taking entries for the September PDI competition, with the categories of "Objects in the Air" and "Open". Harry will miss the October local competition but will sort the entries out for us, The competition categories will be "Local-Not Edited" and "Open". We judge this competition in house so could do with two volunteers to judge. The local competition is a .jpeg photograph taken and straight from the camera, no cropping, or post processing etc, like the old days taken no more than 25 miles from St James church. Regards Graham
