Casual Friday + my camera and lens

Sunnies: Vince Camuto | Necklace: Kate Spade (option, option)  | Bag: Kate Spade (option, option) | Top: JCrew Factory | Jeans: American Eagle (option) | Shoes: Steve Madden

This outfit is exactly what I needed today - something mindless that I could throw on but still feel good in. I don't know why that formula always seems to involve distressed jeans and these leopard slip ons, but there's just something about this combo that always feels great!

I feel like I've been throwing a little randomness at you guys lately on Fridays, so to keep with that theme, I thought I'd talk a little bit about how I take my pictures and what kind of camera and any other equipment I use.

Some basics:

1. The camera -- I use a Nikon D5100. We got it about 3 years ago on Black Friday.

2. Note: Neither me nor my husband have any photography experience outside of just taking photos for fun. I'm sure that is apparent in my photos! We just do our best!

3. The husband is usually my photographer, but if I have to fly solo, then I use our tripod (an older version of this) along with this remote. I will set the camera to a 2 second delay remote sensor shutter release when self taking pics - the 2 seconds is just enough time to hide the remote. Let me just tell you - it is IMPOSSIBLE to take photos using the timer vs. the remote because the camera can't focus on what's not there, and since you're behind the camera pressing the shutter button - the camera focuses on the background, and will continue to focus on the background even when you do step into the frame. Definitely pay the $8 to get a remote! I kicked myself for not getting one sooner.

Interested to see which posts I used a tripod for? Here you go! I love that you really wouldn't know any different - human vs. tripod.

Left | Middle | Right

4. I use my iPad to manage all of my photos. I just pull all my photos off my card using this SD card reader. (The card inserts into the reader which plugs into the iPad.)

5. I really don't edit my photos much other than lightening them, cropping, or straightening.  Although, I do blemish out wrinkles in my clothes. Nothing worse than taking 23876823687 pictures, just to download them and see that your skirt was all wrinkly! I use the Aviary app for photo editing, and do all the editing on my iPad.

Ok, so now for the game changer - the lens. All last year, I was using the 18-55mm lens that came with the camera. It's a great lens, don't get me wrong, but I could never figure out how to achieve the blurry backgrounds that really make you stand out more. I learned that this blurry background is really called "depth of field" and that the 50mm lens was a great basic, starter lens to achieve this. So, for my 1-year blogiversary, I decided to buy a 50mm lens, and I could not be happier with it.

Just so you can appreciate the difference - let's look back at some old photos and compare them to some new ones taken in the same spot. 

Using 18-55mm lens - Original post here

Using 50mm lens - Original post here

Using 18-55mm lens - Original post here

Using 50mm lens - Original post here

Using 18-55mm lens - Original post here

Using 50mm lens - Original post here

I know some of these comparisons are a little unfair because along with the new lens, I also switched to taking all photos over the weekend in bulk - choosing the most optimal, sunny time to do so, vs. taking them individually every dreary morning, so that in and of itself, helps make the photos more appealing. So, for the sake of comparing apples to apples, I give you these photos below.

Focal length 35mm

Aperture f/3.5

ISO 100

Focal length 50mm

Aperture f/1.8

ISO 100

The lower your f stop, the greater the depth of field (i.e. your blurry background.) It is such a subtle difference between the two photos, but you'll see my hair pops better in front of the dark green bushes behind me and my neighbors' flowers on their back porch get a little fuzzier in the second photo. I prefer the second photo over the first because the background is less "noisy" and I feel like I stand out more.

So, a couple things to note about the 50mm lens. It does not zoom. I didn't realize this when I first got it! You physically have to move closer or farther away from your subject to get the detail you are looking for vs the camera zooming in and out. With the 50mm lens, the husband has to stand farther away from me than when he was using the 18-35mm lens in order to get a full body shot. For this reason, it's more difficult to use this lens for taking indoor photos purely because of space constraints.

These are the complete basics of basics that I've learned about lenses over the last few months. I literally knew nothing about this before this year. I actually learned a lot from a couple of Kileen's posts - here and here. I've also referenced this post here.

While I would love to have a professional photographer take all my photos for me, I definitely think buying the 50mm was money well spent and the lens alone made huge improvements in my photos. I can't recommend this enough! Sorry for the photo heavy post, but I hope this was helpful. 

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