Olvera Street in Los Angeles is a sight to see and a marvel of color and texture. People and cars run about and kitchens boil next to carts of wares. Its one part roadside attraction in the city, one part true Mexican identity or culture and one part commerce.
A great way to get quality images for cheap is to acquire a 50mm lens. If you’re a Canon or Nikon shooter you have a number of choices. In a strange vortex where price doesn’t always reflect quality, the 50mm 1.8 lens costs $100 for (both brands) and it’ll blow the socks of most of your zooms for image quality.
Spare another few hundred and you can get the 1.4. I’ve been shooting with this thing for 8 months now and I love it to death. Sure a perfect portrait may need a little more compression than 50mm can give you, even on a crop camera, but this thing rules for low light, shallow depth of field and it really delivers intimate portraits. I am so completely head over heels for this lens, the 50mm 1.2 seems reasonable now. This collection of photos is from my first session with the lens, exploring one of those million tiny places in Los Angeles that is its own universe.
