The Discipline of a Single Lens

I used to shoot almost everything on a 28mm lens. I liked having a wide view on walks around Manila so I could fit the whole sidewalk and the buildings overhead into one shot. If I needed to get closer to someone, I just used my 40mm or 50mm. For some reason I always skipped right past 35mm. I thought the perspective looked a bit flat compared to 28mm, so I never really gave it a proper try.

Then I started bringing a Fujifilm X100VI with me on walks, and its lens is permanently fixed at 35mm. The first few walks with it in Quiapo and Muntinlupa felt pretty cramped. I wasn't used to how tight the edges felt compared to my old 28mm photos.

After a few weeks I got used to the tighter frame and started paying more attention to my distance from people. I just take a step or two closer to the subject when the background looks messy, or step back off the curb when I want more of the road in the shot. I also like not carrying extra lenses around in the heat or worrying about which one is on the camera.

Now I'm so used to that 35mm view that I already have a rough idea of what will fit in the rectangle before I even bring the camera up to my face. Most of the street photos on my site from the last couple of years came out of that little camera. That one fixed lens took away a lot of the guesswork on slow afternoons and let me pay attention to the street itself.