New lens!

I am very, very excited about my new Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens that arrived a couple days ago! I got it with a package that included a new camera bag, a lens hood, 3 filters in a storage case, a cleaning kit and more, so now I'm feeling pretty equipped for my next photoshoot!

I've been reading up on how to shoot in AV (aperture priority) mode since I don't usually, and have been just doing lots of tests to figure out how the lens works. No matter how much you read or know in theory, the best way to learn about a new tool is to practice! What is special about this lens is that it's perfect for portraits because it gives you that smooth, blurry background with the foreground in sharp detail. For example:

Here's an illustration of all the F-stops. That's what the photography world calls each widening or narrowing of the aperture, which is the hole through which the camera captures the image. When the aperture opens wider the background becomes blurrier, and the amount of the frame that is in focus gets smaller. So the first picture in this series at F/1.4 has the blurriest background, and the smallest area that's in sharp relief. The last is F/22 which has the sharpest background with the majority of the shot in focus. The difference is enormous! 

I've been practicing with my family members too, not just flowers! This lens is great for capturing pictures in low-light settings, like this one of my dad working late the other night:

But it can handle bright conditions too!

This is a fixed lens which means it doesn't zoom at all. Because of that it takes a lot of moving around to get the shot right, which is fun!

My sister's cats are honorary family members, but mostly they were being cooperative, so they got some photos too. This is our mama cat who is tiny and still looks like a kitten despite having had a couple litters herself already.

Kitten #1 looks just like mama.

But #2 takes after dad.

They were so cute playing together.

I'm loving this purchase and can't wait to use it during photoshoots! I have a few that are coming up, so stay tuned for more pics soon!