Imposing some discipline

Photography is probably the thing I do most these days. Not well, but most.

A while ago I toyed with the idea of buying (yet) another lens. A prime, wide angle, fast lens (something like a 20mm f/2.8 beauty). I sounded out a friend to see what he thought. We don't always see eye to eye but I value his opinion. After some initial "what about this" banter (and a pint or two, I believe) he came clean and said what I really needed to do was look more and better...and to stick with what I had.

It kind of stung at the time but it he was doing what real friends are supposed to do and tell you the truth as they see it. More annoyingly, he was probably right.

More recently I got chatting to another photographer whose photos I rather like. We discussed what photography is about - whether it's the end result or the process of taking the picture. We agreed that the "looking" is the key thing.

As the year starts to unfold and I get out to take more pictures my aim is to look more and better.

To this end, for the trip out yesterday and today I have restricted myself to a single lens with a single focal length. My 105mm lens is my very favourite for a lot of reasons so that's the one I've chosen.

It's fast and crisp and it's a macro lens so I can't blame my lack of good pictures on its technical shortfalls.

It's an odd focal length - on my camera it's the equivalent of about 150mm on a traditional film camera. This makes it too "long" for my usual sort of architectural pictures and too "short" to take pictures of exotic birds on distant buildings. So...what does that leave me with?

Learning to look better and concentrating on what I can see.

Who knows. I might actually get better at it.