As a new photographer, I wanted a lens that could do it all.
Wide angle
Telephoto
Great in low light
I wanted to solve the problem of capturing a variety of subject matter without being weighed down by 10,000 pounds of gear, especially in low light.
Nikon came close with an 18-300mm lens, but it didn’t have a large aperture, and there was incredible distortion at its widest and telephoto ranges.
In reality, there isn’t really a lens that can do everything. And that might be a good thing.
The question isn’t whether you’ll encounter those limits. The question is which limitations you’re willing to live with.
Because I wanted to travel light, I eventually embraced the constraints of a single lens and learned how to make it work in almost every situation.
There’s nothing wrong with a bag full of lenses.
If I’m on the road for a few days, I bring my whole camera bag. But when I’m heading out for a session or photo walk, I want to travel light.
The 35mm lens lets me travel light, but is that single focal length too limiting?
Let me show you what I do with it, and perhaps you’ll get some ideas for your one lens.
Fujifilm’s 56mm used to be my go-to lens.
However, when I’m photographing a family with toddlers or young children, I usually need to interact with them to get them to smile and laugh.
The 56mm forced me to stand back too far.
Sure, pretty bokeh, but I can’t make a toddler laugh from 20 feet away.
The 35mm allows me to stand closer, with just enough of a telephoto look to cut out distracting background elements, yet enough width to include the landscape when I want to.
Since we had our first baby, I’ve been obsessed with documenting our everyday life.
35mm is tight enough that I don’t get too much extra room in the scene. But it’s not so telephoto that I’m backed against the wall, unable to get the moment in the frame.
Its f2.0 aperture makes it ideal for the low-light situations I often find myself shooting in.
We often think of landscapes as wide-angle opportunities. But when I shoot with a wide-angle lens, the landscape typically appears too small, with too much foreground or too much sky.
35mm gives me a narrower view of the landscape, with enough width to capture exactly what I want.
But what happens when I’m standing in front of a sweeping landscape and wish to capture more than just the 35mm window?
I take a few vertical shots of the landscape and stitch them together as a panoramic in Lightroom.
The result is a panoramic image that captures what I want, without the excess foreground or sky that often comes with a wide lens.
I have a macro lens that I enjoy using from time to time, but generally, I don’t want to be as close as a macro lens will get me.
35mm lets me get close enough for flowers, rocks, and textured surfaces.
Using a single lens on photo walks is great because I’m not weighed down. 35mm lets me get close enough to capture texture and scenes that are a little wider.
Your one lens should offer 80% of the results of a whole bag of lenses.
It should let you photograph almost everything you care about while forcing you to think harder about the situations where you assume it won’t work.
With fewer options, you stop thinking about gear and start thinking about photographs.
The goal isn’t to find the perfect lens. It’s to find the lens you’d happily use even when it isn’t perfect.
Find a lens that can handle most situations, leave the rest at home, and see what happens.
When it comes to lenses, my Fujinon 35mm is a workhorse.
I pack light to introduce creative constraints, eliminate decision fatigue, and find flow in the creative process.
Every lens has limits.
Sometimes those limits are helpful creative constraints.
Limiting yourself to one lens works so well as a creative constraint because it narrows your focus rather than letting your mind wander to every conceivable possibility.
With fewer options, you reduce decision fatigue, which is a creativity killer. Instead, you’re forced to work through constraints and solve problems, which is nearly the definition of creativity.
Mat is a photographer and writer based in Canada. He loves to explore, experiment and teach enthusiastic learners.
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