“Zooms are popular and can be useful tools, though I find that primes often help photographers hone their vision especially when learning. It forces you to move to frame, rather than zoom to frame.”
This is a quote by Paul Gero that I pulled from his guest post on tiffinbox.org. His article is a good read, but this one quote really got me thinking that I zoom to frame way too much. When I visualize an image I do think about what focal length to use, but when I’m “in the thick of it” I don’t take it into conscious consideration other than wide angle distortion. I do know in general what different focal lengths do to the foregrounds and backgrounds, but I rarely really think about it. While I also know some of those choices are automatic, I should still be making an actual decision about it. I think I will take Mr. Gero’s great advice and use my zoom as if it were a prime for a little while. Maybe after that I’ll make a few more actual decisions instead of just zoom framing. As a side note, I also use alliteration more than I should.