The Prime Lens Challenge

or, How a Bent Up Lens Mount Forced Me Out of a Comfort Zone.

For years I’ve had my ‘go-to’ combination of lenses on daily assignments. I always had a 24-70mm attached to a camera and an 80-200mm ready to go as a second lens. Generally speaking, that combination can cover any daily newspaper assignment. My favorite lens though, was a 50mm @ 1.4. I felt like I was really composing pictures when I used a 50mm, but I didn’t use it often enough.

Things changed on election night when I dropped my 24-70 and broke it right before the Republican watch party got into full swing. I went out to the car and got the 35mm, the 50mm and kept the 70-200mm in a hip bag, just in case. It worked. I made nice pictures, got the front page of the paper and had fun trying to see pictures in a little bit different way. Basically, a bent up lens mount forced me out of my comfort zone. Forced me to try something new.

Committing to prime lenses takes away my ‘fallback mode.’ If all else fails, for example, ‘get up close with a wide angle.’ Let the lens make the picture for me. If I force myself to watch for real moments instead of relying on what I’ve done in the past, relying on the same approach at every assignment, then that’s continuing education for a news photographer that’s 13 years in. It sounds so minor, but the effect on my eye, the way I see assignments, feels profound. I feel like I’m back to watching people, waiting for unexpected moments, spending longer at assignments and turning in nearly full frame images. The other day at a gang-prevention assignment (above) I even started thinking that I was going to mess up the assignment. Miss it! I kept waiting around, and eventually ended up with nice pictures, but I haven’t felt the ‘I’m going to miss this’ feeling in a long time. I think that feeling, that I’m really composing pictures through the viewfinder, that I feel re-energized (even on some questionable assignments,) is worth putting a cap on the ‘go-to’ lens, at least for awhile.

So, last week, I committed myself to the prime lenses. I’ve re-arranged my equipment bag so that the 24-70 sits with a lens cap on in the back instead of being attached to my favorite camera. That was a big step in kicking my addiction to the zoom lens. When I get my cameras out of the car, I’m forced to reach first for the 35 and the 50, and so far, I’ve been happy with the results. Here’s a few pictures that you may have seen in the paper, and a few that may only appear on Alternate Crop. As always you can click here to see more galleries from our photo staff, including pictures from the Pearl Harbor ceremony in Oklahoma City.

-John Clanton

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