A couple of weeks ago I decided that my upcoming forced ‘downtime’ from photography (due to surgery) was a good time to send my main camera/lens combination back to Canon for some needed maintenance. The USB port on the 5D mark II had stopped working and the 24-105 f/4L had been in constant use for 4 years and was feeling its age.

The absence of this gear (while it was at Canon for a few weeks) left me at a loss when it came time to get back to work. This gave me the perfect opportunity to add a 50mm f/1.4 lens to pair with my backup 5D. I picked up the lens from my local Picureline store and spent some time playing around with it in the house. Using the lens I was immediately reminded of how great it felt back in the film days to have a ‘standard’ lens attached to a 35mm SLR. And since my normal day-to-day lens is a bit slow at f/4, it was fun to shoot with glass that was 3 f/stops faster.

Today’s image is one I took of Nicole as she was hanging out watching TV at the house. What is really cool about the shot it that it was taken handheld with the only light in the room coming from the TV. F/1.4 to the rescue!

I will be using this 5D/50mm combination in the studio tomorrow as I (finally) get back to doing to real photography work. I look forward to using the new glass in the future as an alternative to my 24-105.

Canon 5D, Canon 50 f/1.4 lens – 1/6 second, f/1.4, ISO 1600