The most fun you can have with a camera........ f1.4

     I recently went to a wedding in Croatia. It was a family wedding and a short trip, plus we were going Ryanair so luggage space was at a premium. In a situation like this there is only room for the bare essentials. A change of clothes, some clean knickers and a camera. Carrying flash guns and spare lenses isn't an option so the good old 50mm f1.4 comes to the rescue every time. This is one of the best selling lenses of all time and apart from the odd tweak has remained largely unaltered for decades. If I could only ever own one lens this would be it. In fact I know one photographer who only ever uses a canon 50mm. If you are feeling flush there is of course the f1.2 but at five times the price I've never really been able to justify it to myself. I am only talking Canon here by the way. Leica make some unbelievable 50mm lenses including the mighty f0.95 noctilux but at £7,000 it really is a luxury.

   So back to the wedding. Everyone has a little camera these days. At the very least an i-phone. It's always tempting to take the little compact camera for convenience but even the best of them are so limited in low light that I really don't think they are worth taking. I have a Leica D-Lux, a nice compact by any standards but compared to even the cheapest SLR with a fast prime lens it performs like a toy. The sensors in these things are too small to cope and the alternative is that tiny, nuclear flash which knocks the life out of everything it falls upon. It is well worth the extra weight and size to take a proper camera.

This guy just loved to dance

   The above shot is one of many I took of this chap throughout the wedding. I think he danced with every girl and always with a huge grin. The 50mm 1.4 allowed me to shoot hand held at 1/60, in low artificial light and still get sharp detail in the eyes even though he is moving about the floor like a Dervish.

Here he is again. On his last dance by the looks of things.

   The other great fun thing about these lenses is when you set the focus to manual, find your spot and just wait for stuff to unfold. The wardrobe malfunction below only lasted a second but because the camera was pre focused and exposure was set I managed to get the action. I was focusing on the guy to the blond girls right because he kept sneaking a look down her top and I thought it would make an amusing photograph if I could catch him. I got much more than I bargained for when the girls strap broke. Funnily enough when that happened the guy was looking at the stage, listening to the speeches and remained blissfully unaware.