of primes, crop factor, street shooting, and the 35mm lens

[Loupey]

I took the girls to South Bass Island (in Lake Erie) last week and I took my Canon 5D with one lens - a 35mm prime - and no flash.

I like the 35mm focal length because it makes a great street-shooting lens with the 5D and it also becomes a "normal" lens on the 50D (or on any APS-C Canon SLR). The low light ability and the increased control of the DOF can make primes more versatile than zooms. The smaller size makes it easier to carry around as well.

I thought it might be useful if I posted some sample images. These 5 are all uncropped from the 5D. I added the "crop factor" rectangle of what/how I might have composed the shot had I used an APS-C camera (and if I did not change my shooting distance).

[Loupey]

A couple more. These benefitted from the 5D's full-frame sensor given my shooting distance.

Hope that helps (in some way). EXIF included.

[Frog]

Nice, especially the last 4

edit: your second post wasn't there when I posted earlier, so the last four I refer to are the ones in the first set.

[Franglais]

That's interesting. In the first 5 the cropped image tells almost the same story as the uncropped one, except for the first image when you were really close to the little girl. You need the railing and the stormy lake behind to tell the viewer that we're still on the boat trip - unless you want to transform it into a portrait, which works just as well.

[readingr]

Loupey,

These are wonderful pics and looks like you had a good time.

As Franglais points out the cropped versions give the same story but personally in those photo's I prefer the added details, except for the first where I think the crop would be better.

Roger R.