I've been loving street photography for a while now and it's mostly a wide shot that focuses on the area/place of what I'm photographing. I've been using a 23mm lens for them and I wanted to try something new: to take photographs that focuses on people.
I have an 80mm that's specifically for macro shots but can also be used as a "normal" lens. I wanted to use a "telephoto" lens that don't require me to get close to people to photograph them since I don't really like confrontation and obviously it's ideal to take photos sneakily.
It worked quite well for the busy people that are quite far from me... but since the lens is too big and long, people close to me notice me quite quickly that I'm carrying a camera and I feel like they become self-conscious of being photographed and I become too as well since they're looking at me. XD
The pros of carrying this lens is that I can take macro photos of tiny stuff like flowers and take photos of birds that are quite far away. This is cropped to my liking since I was still not that close to get the framing that I wanted but still nice that I didn't lose that much resolution with the cropping.
I was able to photograph this lil pigeon without scaring it away.
I take every opportunity to take photos of people who are far enough to not notice there's a creepy photographer with long-ass lens pointing at them.
This photo makes me look like a stalker hiding behind the bushes lol.
Welcome to trash fresh life
I added the grain btw cos I love them.
The experience with this lens for me is something. I know there are lenses out there with longer focal lengths that don't look physically this long. I'm also used to using my 23mm lenses that look a lot smaller (but not to the point of pancake lens) so I can take photos without letting everyone know I have a camera. It was fun taking this long lens out although I just really need to be brave and have the don't care vibe so I can take shots properly.
Taking photos of people are really fun because they can depict a different story with just one different pose or position on the streets.
I will still take my 23mm lens with me over the 80mm macro lens especially for travel. :P