“f.8 and be there” was this funky little saying that used to pop up regularly when I was studying photography. f.8 (yeah I know the “f” should be capitalized, but it just doesn’t seem right!) was this magical aperture. It was the sweet spot. Just the right amount of depth of field and often a pretty crisp result.
I had actually completely forgotten about this saying until I opened up one of my Christmas presents from my husband. It was the Olympus Body Cap Lens to fit my Olympus E-PL3 (a.k.a. my “fun” camera). This little number, and I do mean LITTLE, is only 9mm in thickness. Using the Olympus Body Cap Lens is a completely different shooting experience. It is a fixed focal length 15mm lens, fixed at f.8 (yep, no other choices!) and manual focus (yes indeedy you read that right!). Can you say “old school”? Can you say “super cool”? This Body Cap Lens is both.
The shooting experience is completely different. Your feet are your zoom. You need to plan to shoot in reasonably bright conditions if you are hand holding as f.8 is it. You need to remember to focus unless you are shooting at infinity. It is a blast. Working within the parameters means that you really stop and think about the shot and how to make it work. It reminded me of a time, way back, when I picked up an old medium format twin lens reflex to have a camera that shot differently. Waist level finder, leaf shutter, basic clean no-frills shooting. This lens lets me shoot old-school with new technology. It is awesome.
The pictures from today are of the Old Court House in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. This was the first time shooting with this lens. I was originally going to post the images in color as the color was stunning, but then I looked at the images in black and white and that was IT.
The Olympus Body Cap Lens is a brilliant little lens and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to explore a different way of shooting.
h..... the blog 
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