Hello there! I’m so excited to share about something that’s EXTREMELY important to photography: your lenses! I shoot with prime lenses (they don’t have a zoom/master one focal length) and Drew predominately shoots with a 70-200 zoom lens. We like both prime and zoom lenses but they all have different functions.

Our Current Lenses

50 mm 1.4 (Monica) & 50 mm 1.8 (Drew) Canon

If I could only bring one lens with me to any wedding, session, or event, I’d choose my 50mm 100% of the time! This lens is so versatile and is actually the lens that captures images closest to how the human eye processes them. For those starting out, I’d definitely recommend the 1.8 because it’s cheaper and works great! If you’d like to know more, head to the Canon or Nikon and Equipment for Beginner Photographers blog posts!

When Drew joined my team, I upgraded to the 1.4 (he got the 1.8) and in the next 1-2 years I plan to upgrade to the 1.2 so Drew can have the 1.4 and the 1.8 will be on our back up camera.

85 mm 1.4 Canon

This is my favorite lens! The boekah (blurred background) it produces is just dreamy! I shoot a ton of bride & groom portraits in this lens as well as start all dances & toasts during the reception in this lens. For engagement sessions, I’m in this lens 80% of the time!

35 mm 1.2 Sigma

This is a life saver for small getting ready suites, family formals, full bridal party shots, the reception dance floor, wide shots at the ceremony, and I could go on & on! I love this lens and use it often during wedding days! For portraits, I usually only use this if there’s a beautiful background. Otherwise, I stick to my 50 and 85 mm lenses.

100 mm macro Canon

I use this at the start of every wedding for detail shots! I use this at engagement sessions for ring shots and I’ll occasionally use this for portrait time as well!

70-200 mm Tamron

Drew is usually the only using this lens! It weighs about 5 pounds on its own so I let him do the heavy lifting 😉 This is also a great lens for Drew because he likes to shoot from farther away, whereas I love getting close to my subjects and interacting more. I love the look of the images this lens produces! This lens is especially wonderful to use during ceremonies so you can get close shots while being far away.

We chose to get the Tamron verses Canon brand because it was quite a bit cheaper and from all the research Drew did, we found that most people preferred the Tamron better anyway. We’ve loved it! If you’re on the bubble, I’d encourage you to rent both to test out what you like better!

The order we bought our lenses:

50 mm 1.8

50 mm 1.4

85 mm 1.4

35 mm 1.4

100 mm 1.4

70-200 mm

Next on our list:

50 mm 1.2

85 mm 1.2

24-70 mm

Wishing you the very best as you figure out which lenses work best for you! If you every have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or shoot us an email at monicabrowphoto@gmail.com!

XO,

Mon