It really is hard for me to pick my favorite lenses. All of them have a special place in my heart somewhere, but there are definitely a few of them that I love more than the others. This has been a fun series to dive in a little bit more, and share my favorites of my favorites, and why! You can see more of this series here!

Uno: What I Couldn’t Live Without
Dos: American Sniper
Tres: Details, Details, Details
Quatro: Caution: Wide Load
Cinco: It’s Pretty Nifty

Lens Love | Nikon 105 mm Macro

Details are one of my favorite parts of the day. It sets the stage for the rest of the wedding day for me, and gets my creative juices to start flowing! I love being able to have that hour or so to curate the details in a way that is consistent with the rest of the wedding day! I just love it!

Being a product photographer is not something that I had imagined when I started this adventure, but shooting details you have to think like one. With macro photography, like rings and necklaces, and the likes, it’s best when you can get the images at a 1:1 ration to real life! I love my Nikon 105 Macro because I am able to focus in SO close that it’s like it’s life size in my images. You get to see all the amazing details, and I just love it.

One tricky thing to using a macro lens at its minimum focal length is that your focal plane is a sliver. Like literally a sliver of space. I find that when i’m focusing on rings, I have to shoot at least a f/8 but preferably f/11 if I have the light available and can get away with it. Even when you are shooting with a high aperture, with a macro lens, you are still able to get beautiful bokeh because of that sliver of a focal plane. The more you back up from your item/subject, the wider your focal plane gets, but it’s still super tiny compared to a non-macro lens–unless your are focusing farther away. That’s kind of confusing….but ring shots are kind of my jam! 😀

Though I absolutely LOVE this lens for small details, it is an awesome lens for portraits as well. You have that longer reach, 2.8 aperture (though it’s really like 3 when your focal distance is further), and compression that looks beautiful in the final product! I’ve seen a lot of wedding photographers hesitate to make that purchase because of the fact they don’t think they will use the lens very often. Honestly, I don’t, but that’s because I have the 85mm that I ADORE. If I had to though, I would definitely use it more! 😀 It’s a great all around lens!

Here’s a few of my adorable muddy baby!