Oooh I am SO excited about this post! There is a lot of stress in talking about the “business” side of a business… you know, money and finances and taxes. BLEH. But than there is the fun of the business that I can talk about for days! Like albums, social media and equipment. What is a photographer with their camera and lens’? Though now I’m just realizing I SHOULD probably be talking about by actual camera body and flash and what Jose and I BOTH carry as well… but I guess we can save that for another blog post! 😉 Today we are talking all about LENS’ and my favorite 4!

These are four lens’ that I absolutely LOVE to use on wedding days. I get excited when I have to switch to each one for whatever portion of the day and I love how much variety it gives photos on a wedding day and quite honestly, I find it fascinating how much things can change with a switch from one lens to another. We shoot Canon exclusively with prime lens’ (which means in basic terms that we’re not into zoom lens’ that much) and that is totally a personal preference… this just happens to be what Jose and I are most comfortable shooting with. After renting lens’ for years and trying out so many different ones, these are my core 4. Let’s see how I use all 4 of these lens’ on ONE wedding day! In this case, Dominique & Jack’s! 🙂

My number one is and always will be my 50mm 1.2. This is my baby. I absolutely LOVE this lens and always have from the moment I got it. I can shoot an entire wedding with just this lens’. In fact I HAVE but that’s a story for a different day lol. This lens’ is the most versatile of all and can be used easily in any situation… portraits, ceremony, getting ready, whenever! There’s no better way to say it… this is the BEST lens’ for portraits!

I actually LOVE my 35mm 1.4, which is actually a super wide lens’ compared to the rest but that is the exact reason why I love it. Anytime we are shooting in a tiny or tight space, the 35 does WONDERS. It makes the room look ten times bigger. And any time I want to really capture the background or a breathtaking view, the 35mm is what I grab for those shots. This is the lens’ I always shoot Bridal Party & Family Portraits with, ESPECIALLY when family portraits are done in a church and the space is smaller than usual. As you can see from all the different times this lens’ is used on a wedding day.. it’s pretty obvious why it’s in my top 4!

I know a lot of photographers that don’t really like Macro lens’ but I absolutely LOVE mine. In fact, I use it as much as I can on a wedding day. I have the 100mm 2.8 and just love it. Macro Len’s definitely are special because they can only be used in certain moments of a wedding day. This is the BEST lens’ for capturing getting ready details like perfumes, jewelry and of course… THE RING. It’s become my favorite detail to capture BECAUSE of the Macro! There’s only one lens’ that can give you amazing ring shots and that is the Macro. But I also love to use it when capturing other details of a wedding day like cakes, cake toppers & centerpieces! This is also a lens’ we have discovered can be great for ceremonies! It gets you close enough to the Bride & Groom’s faces while standing all the way in the back of the church or ceremony and we’ve gotten a lot of great ceremony shots with this lens too! Like I said, I use it as much as I can 🙂

The 85mm 1.2 is every photographers DREAM in a lens. I think this is a lens’ only a wedding photographer can REALLY appreciate because it brings your portraits up to a different level. I think the best thing to do is look at the photo below next to the 85mm and look at the photo above next to the 50mm. Do you notice the difference? I do? The 85mm makes the skin tone GLOW, the photo CREAMIER… the background looks further away and it REALLY focuses in on just the two of them, even though they were basically right against that wall! That depth of field is INSANE. It’s such a sharp lens’ and I know anytime I pull that out, those portraits are about to look ten times better. ANYTIME I shoot with this lens’ you will hear me scream in my best Barbara Streisand “it’s like BUTTER!” because it just makes photos instantly so smooth and beautiful! This is a lens’ you need to be patient with, because it’s takes a TEENY second longer to focus because it gets in REAL close but it’s so worth it. Ahh I really geek out over this one, don’t I? 🙂

Those are my top 4 favorite lens’ for a wedding day! Of course we have other lens’ we love and actual camera bodies lol and flash for when it get’s dark but I’ll be sure to share that in another blog post! And we definitely want to try out some more lens’ and we’ve got a list of others we absolutely want to purchase and build up our collection with but these 4 hold a special place in my heart 🙂 I will use these 4 over and over again on a wedding day and just had to share my favorites.

Let me know if you liked this post and want to see more like this again 🙂