Fast Glass

As a professional photographer, I'm often faced with less than ideal lighting situations. In many of those cases, I'm not allowed to augment the existing light (what little there is) with any sort of flash. Many of these situations include indoor sporting events, like the Southern Conference basketball tournament I shot earlier this year, where the flash would distract the athletes. Others include formal church weddings where a flash would take the focus off the bride & groom. Finally, like in this corporate conference for the American Council of Engineering Companies, it would simply be in poor taste. People ask me all the time, "why do certain lenses cost so much?". Well, some lenses are simply designed and built with larger maximum apertures and larger glass elements so they can "see" better in dim light. Often referred to as "fast glass", these lenses allow more light into the camera the same way those huge pupils from an owl's eyes allow it to see better at night. I carry an arsenal of fast lenses to every assignment so that when the other photographers don't have enough light to get the shot, I switch to one of these gems and keep on shooting. Check out my gear box if you're interested in this sort of thing.