Creativity and inspiration come from within the artist, but the tools determine much of the character of the finished artwork. Oil painters have their bristle brushes, canvas, and linseed oil; watercolorists have their sable brushes and handmade watercolor paper; relief printmakers have their wood blocks, carving knives, and brayers; and, photographers have their cameras, lenses, and software.

It could be argued that the camera and sensor are equivalent to the artist's canvas, and the lens is equivalent to the artist's paint and brushes. The characteristics of a particular paint and brush combination do more to determine the character of a painting than the canvas. Likewise, the characteristics of a particular lens do more to determine the character of a photograph than the camera and sensor.

My initial collection of three zoom lenses were chosen based upon my desire to develop a body of work documenting the open spaces near my studio in South Placer County, as well as the nearby counties within the northern third of the Central Valley of California. The set is well tailored to capturing everything from classic wide angle scenics to mid-distance vignettes.

The one missing piece has been a lens to capture intimate details of the landscape, from near-distance abstracts down to the macro level of small objects such as individual rocks and plants. To fill this gap, I've added a macro lens to my tool kit; the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro IS USM.

The Canon 100 L Macro is a pro level, mid-telephoto macro with 4-stop image stabilization, ultrasonic auto-focus, 1X maximum magnification (0.3 meter minimum focus distance), and extremely high image quality. This lens will enable me to drill down and document the environment on a more intimate level than in the past. I'm very excited about this!

You'll be seeing some of this new, more intimate imagery on the site this summer.