Mike Hoff Photo

My Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens is one of my favorite lenses; it is sharp, fast, and the focal length is perfect for many applications. I bought it to shoot basketball with and it performed above and beyond my expectations with that, but now that I graduated from college I haven’t used it much, which is a shame for such a great lens. I essentially slapped on my Sigma 17-70 walk around lens and never looked back. Yeah I employed my 70-200 every now and then but, I did change lenses much.

The other day I realized just how underused the 85mm had become, I couldn’t remember the last time that I had taken a picture with it. I made a pledge to myself that I would use it for my 365 picture that day and that I would utilize it more often, maybe for some portrait work down the line.

As soon as I put the lens on my 40DI felt more inspired, something had changed and I had to adapt my shooting to it. I had fallen into a rut and my photos had suffered because of it. I hope to never reach that point again and to always try something new, be it a different lens, a different camera, or a new way of shooting. Art requires experimentation.

I love war photography and I admire those who are willing and able to travel to some other worst situations on earth simply to report back to the rest of us with images. Since I got into photography I have wanted to get into Photojournalism and war photography but that is a pipe dream and something that will probably never happen. I love the work of James Natchwey, Eddie Adams, and W. Eugene Smith. These men are amazing and practice their craft in some of the worst situations. The following image I found one day while browsing around the internet (may have come from Time.com). The images is of a camera and lens spattered with blood after a day of use in the field. I think it shows what war photographers go through and just how close they are to their stories. If anybody has more information on this image please let me know.