Why I Shoot with Only One Focal Length

Photo by Caroline Tran.

When I first started in photography, I had this weird idea that I needed to cover every focal length range with my lens kit. I convinced myself that I needed to get ANY shot possible at ANY moment.

At one point in my career I carried this to every shoot:

• Voigtlander 20mm f2.8
• Canon 35mm f1.8
• Canon 50mm f1.4
• Canon 17–40mm f4
• Canon 70–200mm f2.8

With this kit, I had everything covered from 17mm to 200mm! I was SET.

Boy, what a mistake.

My work was sloppy, inconsistent, had no personal style, I missed shots while changing lenses, and perhaps worst of all, I damaged my back by carrying all of this in a shoulder bag. It took me years to undo the damage I had done to my back, and I credit the heavy bag with eventually causing a herniated disc which I suffer from to this day.

One time, while shooting a wedding ceremony, I was bent down changing my lens from 20mm to 50mm, and being distracted by a guest, completely missed the kiss. I was devastated. I knew my system was a mistake. And slowly it dawned on me: when I looked at my best photos to this point, they were ALL shot on a 50mm lens. I had the other…