nifty fifty

So my nifty fifty has arrived and I'm in love. 

Yes, my 50 mm, f/1.8 little lens that only cost about $80 delivers fabulously narrow depth-of-field images and yes, bokeh:) I can see why this photography thing becomes an addicting and expensive hobby....watch out!

I heard many raves about this baby but some people claim it's a cheapie, 'Cracker Jacks box toy' lens. So far I must say it's well worth my money and is a great starter for someone like myself who has no need for the uber-expensive, elite f/1.2 lens [well, of course a girl can dream but for now this will do]. Even the f/1.4 seemed a little too much for little old me and thus a love affair with the 1.8 was born. 

As a prime lens I have to move my whole body forward or backward to zoom instead of twisting the lens itself. Let's just say this makes me a little less lazy and is rather hard to get used to, but I love it. 

So my first round of pictures are as follows:

{food---I hear this lens works wonderfully for food shots and any stationary objects}

This would be our asparagus and chicken parmesan dinner we created last week. So yummy!

Then there was my new favorite muffin, the cranberry pumpkin from Alterra. Scrumptious! 

Onto more inanimate objects, Go Billikens!

And there's always nature. Check out this depth-of-field!

This is shot looking straight up our neighbor's wall, which is covered in vines. Again, the DOF boggles my mind. I see what my kit lens is missing now, with it's measly 5.6 or 4.5 apertures. 

More of the vines, love the colors here.

And come on, you didn't think I'd forget about this little dude, did you? Backlit subject with a noticeable hunk of goo on his nose. I'm pretty sure he might have gotten bombarded by a renegade squirt of honey and now his fur is a sticky mess of gunk. But I refuse to wash it out because I'm lazy and it's rather cute, don't you think?

It's kind of difficult to get the right focus with such a narrow DOF but this one was okay. It seems like if I focus on his nose then his eyes are totally out of focus and vice versa. Darn dogs and their large honkers!

That's just the beginning, my friends. I have many other images to share with you this week and I'm about 80% sure Nate will grace us with his presence, too. I'm going to force a Twilight scene or two on him tonight just so he can get the full effect while I relive some of my favorite scenes. It's a sickness, really.